Ms Alisa Gevorgyan (p), Mr Tomás Dentinho

The aim of this paper is to analyse the evolution and structural interdependence of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) across 130 countries over the period 2019–2023, with a specific focus on the role of digital readiness in shaping sustainable development trajectories. Using a Generalized Q Analysis (GQA) framework, the study integrates ten normalized SDG indicators-including dimensions related to capital accumulation, growth, and digitally mediated capacities-into a multidimensional structure, generating 2¹⁰ = 1,024 possible development profiles and 650 country-year observations.
The results reveal a strongly polarized two-dimensional structure. The first component-interpreted as Digital and Capital Readiness-accounts for nearly 90% of the total variance and reflects the joint accumulation of natural, human, productive, and digitally enabled institutional capital. The second component-associated with Short-Term Economic Stability and Growth Dynamics- explains about 5% of the variance and captures cyclical movements in growth, employment, and inflation. The first component is significantly stronger in developed economies characterized by higher institutional quality and digital capacity. By contrast, the second component exhibits greater volatility over time and is more pronounced in low-income countries, where growth dynamics are less supported by digital and institutional complementarities.
Overall, the findings highlight that contemporary sustainable development is increasingly shaped by digitally mediated interactions between capital accumulation, institutional capacity, and economic growth, and that digital transformation plays a critical role in determining both the resilience and direction of national development paths.

Dr. Caterina Morelli (p), Prof. Consuelo Nava

This paper studies how tourism intensity relates to greenhouse gas emissions across 238 NUTS2 regions in the European Union over the period 2014 to 2023. Using regional accounts, productivity indicators, and emissions data combined with regional tourism statistics, we estimate panel models with region and year fixed effects to isolate within region changes over time. A key contribution is to treat tourism as heterogeneous by distinguishing tourism segments with different spending capacity. We proxy higher spending tourism with nights spent in hotels and lower spending tourism with nights spent in other short stay accommodation such as bed and breakfasts, hostels, and camping sites. This distinction allows us to test whether the composition of tourism flows matters for regional emissions, beyond the overall level of economic activity and structural characteristics.
The empirical specifications control for the scale of economic activity using real GDP and its square, for economic structure using value added in agriculture and in industry and energy, and for technology and efficiency using labour productivity. Because emissions are spatially clustered across neighbouring regions, we also estimate spatial panel specifications that capture interregional dependence through a nearest neighbours weighting scheme, considering both spatial error and spatial lag formulations. This approach accounts for correlated shocks and potential spillovers in emission outcomes across space.
Across specifications, hotel nights are associated with slightly lower total emissions, while nights in other accommodation types display a positive but less precisely estimated relationship. Sectoral regressions suggest that differences between the two tourism segments are most evident for building related emissions, indicating that the accommodation channel plays an important role in the aggregate pattern. In contrast, higher spending tourism correlates positively with transport and waste emissions, consistent with mobility and consumption channels that may offset building related reductions. Emissions from agriculture, industry, and public use energy show weaker and less precisely estimated links to tourism flows.
Overall, the results indicate that the tourism emissions relationship is not uniform across sources and depends on the composition of tourism demand. The findings point to targeted policy priorities, combining energy efficiency measures in accommodation with transport and waste management strategies, and highlight the value of spatial coordination given the presence of interregional dependence.