International Tourism and Economic Growth: a Panel Data Approach

On average, tourism-specialized countries grow more than others, according to the authors. This fact is inconsistent with economic theory as, in particular, endogenous growth theory suggests that economic growth is linked with: (1) sectors with high intensity in R&D and thus high productivity; (2) large scale. In this paper, the authors use panel data methods to go further in treating the endogeneity problem.