The role of tourism, transportation and globalization in testing environmental Kuznets curve in Malaysia: new insights from quantile ARDL approach

This paper uses the quantile autoregressive distributed lag (QARDL) model to analyze the impact of economic growth, tourism, transportation, and globalization on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the Malaysian economy. The QARDL model is employed utilizing quarterly data from 1995Q1 to 2018Q4. The results demonstrate that economic growth is significantly positive with CO2 emissions at lower to upper quantiles. Interestingly, tourism has a negative effect on CO2 emissions at higher quantiles. Moreover, globalization and transportation services are positive, with CO2 emissions at upper-middle to higher quantiles. Furthermore, we tested the environmental Kuznets curve, and the outcomes confirm the presence of the inverted U-shaped curve in the Malaysian economy. The results of this study suggest that ecotourism is beneficial for economic growth in underdeveloped areas; it increases employment opportunities and, thus, achieves a win-win situation for protection and development. The government should encourage the low-carbon development of ecotourism and achieve green development of both tourism and the economy.