María P. Pablo-Romero, Antonio Sánchez-Braza , Javier Sánchez-Rivas (p)

Flavio Vieira

Tourism sector is a major economic activity constituting one of the main sectors in economic terms. European countries traditionally play a significant role in the overall international tourism flow. However, while tourism has noticeable positive impact on economic development, it also contribute to the environmental degradation by increasing energy consumption and therefore emissions.
This paper analyzes the relationships between Hotels & Restaurants electricity consumption and tourism growth in 9 European countries during 2004-2012, for which there are enough availability data. A decomposition analysis based on log-mean divisia index method (LMDI I) is conducted to examine electricity consumption on this sector and their components. Five decomposition factors are considered: energy intensity (EI), physical capital intensity (KI), physical and human capital relationship (KL), human capital intensity (LI) and the tourism factor (T). Results show the evolution of energy consumption related to this sector identifying the driving forces that have influenced it.

Flavio Vieira (p), Carlos Saiani , Cleomar Gomes da Silva

Javier Sánchez-Rivas García

This article aims to investigate the Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis (EKC) and the Pollution Haven Hypothesis (PHH), as well as the existence of business cycles, for the BRICS countries (except Russia): Brazil, India, China, and South Africa. Environmental degradation was measured by two indicators: CO2 emissions and Consumption Ecological Footprint. The former is more widely used in other works to empirically test EKC, but it is not directly related to production inside a country. The latter takes into account residents’ biodiversity consumption of a country, regardless of the location, in such a way that it is not subject to the influence of PHH and, therefore, it can be taken is a more general measure of environmental sustainability. By making use of ARDL models (Bounds Testing Cointegration Approach) for annual data ranging from 1961 to 2013, our estimations suggest mixed results: i) Pollution Haven Hypothesis is observed in the Chinese case, but not in the case of Brazil, India and South Africa; ii) As for the analysis of business cycles, there are basically no asymmetries, meaning that in times of booms, pollution increases, and in times of recession pollution decreases; iii) Regarding the Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis, our estimations show that it does not hold for the cases of Brazil and India. On the other hand, China and South Africa’s results indicate the possibility of EKC Hypothesis holding for both countries. Since PHH is not refuted for the Chinese case, the evidence suggests a more robust EKC for South Africa.