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The environmental sustainability effects of income, labour force, and tourism development in OECD countries

Environmental Science and Pollution Research volume 27, pages 21231–21242 (2020)Cite this article

Abstract

The impacts of the increasing human activities mostly through socio-economic and environment interactions have continued to generate more scientific studies and contemporary discussion on issues ranging from the climate change to income and gender gap. Accordingly, the current study employed the cointegration and a two-step (system) SYS-Generalized Method of Moments to examine the environmental sustainability effects of income, international tourism arrivals, and labour force vis-à-vis gender unemployment in the panel of (32) Organization for Economic Development and Corporation (OECD) for the period 1995–2016. The study revealed that income growth in the OECD countries and increase in the inflow of international tourists into the OECD member countries are significant endangering factors for the bloc’s environmental sustainability. More striking is the environmental impact of labour force in the panel countries. Intuitively, a positive labour force-environmental degradation nexus is expected; the negatively desirable labour force-environmental degradation nexus in the current study is a justification of (1) the prevailing gender employment/unemployment classifications in the OECD member countries, and (2) the increasing adoption of more environmental friendlier working conditions or operation among the member countries. Moreover, the current study strongly posits a significant policy framework for the governments and stakeholders of the OECD member countries.

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Fig. 1

Notes

  1. The step-by-step procedure of the LLC test is provided in Levin, A., Lin, C. F., and Chu, C. S. J. (2002). Unit root tests in panel data: asymptotic and finite-sample properties. Journal of econometrics, 108(1), 1–24.

  2. The step-by-step procedure of the LLC test is provided in Im, K. S., Pesaran, M. H., and Shin, Y. (2003). Testing for unit roots in heterogeneous panels. Journal of econometrics, 115(1), 53–74.

  3. A more detailed and step-by-step presentation of the two-step system-GMM estimation procedure is available in the work of Arellano and Bover (1995).

  4. Another source of the step-by-step presentation of the estimation and diagnostic procedure is put forward by Blundell and Bond (1998)

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Affiliations

  1. Department of Tourism Management, Eastern Mediterranean University, Via Mersin 10, Famagusta, Turkey

    Taiwo T. Lasisi, Kayode K. Eluwole & Ali Ozturen

  2. Faculty of Economics, Administrative and Social Science, Department of Economics, Istanbul, Turkey

    Andrew A. Alola

  3. Department of Financial Technologies, South Ural State University, Chelyabinsk, Russia

    Andrew A. Alola

  4. Faculty of Economics, Administrative and Social Science, Department of Tourism Guidance, Istanbul, Turkey

    Uju V. Alola

  5. School of Economics and Management, South Ural State University, Lenin prospect 76, Chelyabinsk, 454080, Russian Federation

    Uju V. Alola

Authors
  1. Taiwo T. Lasisi
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  2. Andrew A. Alola
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  3. Kayode K. Eluwole
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  4. Ali Ozturen
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  5. Uju V. Alola
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Correspondence to Andrew A. Alola.

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Appendix

Appendix

Fig. 2
figure 2

The time plot illustrating the relationship between carbon emissions (CO2) with GDP per capita (a), with international tourism arrivals (b), with labour force (c), with male unemployment (d), and with female unemployment (d)

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Lasisi, T.T., Alola, A.A., Eluwole, K.K. et al. The environmental sustainability effects of income, labour force, and tourism development in OECD countries. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 21231–21242 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-08486-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-08486-w

Keywords

  • Sustainable environment
  • Income
  • Labour force
  • Gender (un)employment
  • OECD