Dynamic and causality linkages from transportation services and tourism development to economic growth and carbon emissions: New insights from Quantile ARDL approach

Abstract

Abstract The present study investigates the pathway toward sustainability in Malaysia while observing the effects of tourism and transportation services on economic growth and carbon emissions. The study applied the quantile autoregressive distributed lag approach during the period 1970–2018, along with Granger causality to explore dynamic and asymmetric causal associations between the proposed variables. The empirical outcomes indicate that the error correction parameters are significant across major quantiles, confirming the presence of steady-state equilibrium in the long run. The results demonstrate that tourism and transportation services contribute significantly to economic growth in the long run; however, their contribution varies at different quantiles. On the other hand, tourism and transportation services were found to mitigate carbon dioxide emissions mainly across higher emission quantiles, confirming the sustainability of the transportation and tourism sector in Malaysia. We also observe a bidirectional causality between model variables. These results suggest important policy implications. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:1272–1287. © 2021 SETAC KEY POINTS This study investigates the asymmetric trends of tourism and transport services using novel quantile ARDL framework. Tourism and transportation services significantly contribute to economic growth. Tourism and transportation services were found to mitigate carbon dioxide emissions mainly across higher emissions quantiles. Environmental impact of tourism and transport services was significantly varied across lower, medium, and higher quantiles.