Reformulating the tourism-extended environmental Kuznets curve: A quantile regression analysis under environmental legal conditions

Abstract

This work aims to empirically study the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) in a model that takes into account the tourism sector. We use two novel approaches in this framework: an own developed environmental legal index and an instrumental quantile regression methodology. Our study comprises 18 Latin American countries between 1995 and 2013. We have found that tourism activity causes carbon emissions increases but, because of the restrictions imposed by environmental regulations, further tourism activity can mitigate these adverse environmental effects, mainly in high-polluted countries. These results suggest a step forward in the tourism-extended EKC estimations: they indicate the need for analysis considering the heterogeneities in environmental conditions across countries and the role of environmental regulation within this framework.