International Tourism and Economic Growth: a Panel Data Approach

On average, tourism-specialized countries grow more than others. 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, we use panel data methods to go further in treating the endogeneity problem. In general and contrary to previous works, we conclude that tourism, on its own, cannot explain the higher growth rates of these countries.