How Fast are Small Tourism Countries Growing? The 1980-2003 Evidence

17 Pages Posted: 12 Dec 2006

See all articles by Rinaldo Brau

Rinaldo Brau

Università di Cagliari - Department of Economics & Business; Universita di Cagliari - Centre for North South Economic Research (CRENOS)

Alessandro Lanza

Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM), Milan; CMCC - Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici; Bocconi University - IEFE Centre for Research on Energy and Environmental Economics and Policy

Francesco Pigliaru

University of Cagliari and CRENoS

Date Written: January 2007

Abstract

We analyze the empirical relationship between growth, country size and tourism specialization by using a dataset covering the period 1980-2003. We find that small tourism countries grow significantly faster than all the other sub-groups considered in our analysis. The reason for this is neither because they are poorer than the average, nor because they are very open to trade. In other words, Tourism appears to be an independent determining factor for growth. Another finding of our paper is that small states are fast growing especially when are highly specialized in tourism. In contrast with some previous conclusions in the literature, smallness per se is not good for growth.

Keywords: Small states, growth, tourism, cross country comparisons

JEL Classification: F43, O57

Suggested Citation

Brau, Rinaldo and Lanza, Alessandro and Pigliaru, Francesco, How Fast are Small Tourism Countries Growing? The 1980-2003 Evidence (January 2007). FEEM Working Paper No. 1.2007, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=951221 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.951221

Rinaldo Brau

Università di Cagliari - Department of Economics & Business ( email )

V. S. Ignazio 17
Cagliari 09123, CA 09123
Italy
+39 070 6753315 (Phone)
+39 178 2243016 (Fax)

Universita di Cagliari - Centre for North South Economic Research (CRENOS) ( email )

V. S. Ignazio 78
Cagliari, 09124
ITALY

Alessandro Lanza

Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM), Milan

Corso Magenta 63
20123 Milan
Italy

CMCC - Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici ( email )

via Augusto Imperatore, 16
Bologna, I-73100
Italy

Bocconi University - IEFE Centre for Research on Energy and Environmental Economics and Policy ( email )

viale Filippetti, 9
Milan, 20122
Italy

Francesco Pigliaru (Contact Author)

University of Cagliari and CRENoS ( email )

Viale S. Ignazio, 78
Cagliari I-09123
Italy
070-6753818 (Phone)
070-6753760 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://francescopigliaru@blogspot.com

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