Energy Economics Letters

The dynamic nexus among carbon dioxide emissions, energy consumption, and tourism development in Sri Lanka

Sarojini Maheswaranathan — Fri, 01 Mar 2024 00:00:00 -0600

The study examines the dynamic nexus among carbon dioxide emissions, energy consumption, and tourism development in Sri Lanka. The tourism sector is one of the fastest-growing industries throughout the globe. This sector significantly contributes to the national development of a country in various ways, not only in developed countries but also in developing countries. However, activities related to the tourism sector contribute to environmental damage, such as transportation, establishing tourism destinations, discouraging wages, high presume on endangered species, and developing foreseeing fire, etc. Scholars for various studies have found conflicting results about the relationship between growing tourism and environmental degradation. Therefore, based on the ARDL cointegration analysis for the period 1990-2019 in Sri Lanka, this paper examines whether the tourism development has contributed to environmental damage, energy consumption, and economic growth. Statistical analysis of the data demonstrates that CO2 emissions in Sri Lanka are negatively correlated with tourist arrival (TR) but positively correlated with tourism receipt (TR) and energy consumption (EC) in the long term. Further, the findings highlight that there is no significant relationship between CO2 emissions and economic growth in Sri Lanka. The findings of this research ensure that the tourism industry can adjust to shifting energy conditions and economic dynamics by pointing policymakers in the direction of workable strategies that strike a balance between energy efficiency, economic growth, and sustainable tourism development.

Hedging effectiveness in EU energy market: A case study

Andreas Petrou, Nikolaos Eriotis, Evangelos Poutos, Paraskevi Boufounou — Wed, 20 Mar 2024 00:00:00 -0500

The current conditions in the European Union energy market are closely linked to significant fluctuations in both demand (due to the marked reduction in economic activity across the EU region due to the implementation of protection measures against COVID-19) and supply (characterized by high volatility in electricity pricing due to irregular fluctuations in fossil fuel prices). Given these challenging conditions, energy companies are forced to adopt hedging strategies to navigate the complexities associated with the extensive market risks. This study empirically examines the impact of the implementation of hedging strategies (measured by the value of financial derivatives relative to the total assets of company values) on financial value (assessed using the Tobin Q ratio) of power generation companies operating in the EU region for 2016 - 2021. The results, derived from an econometric study using panel data analysis, revealed that a potential increase in the value of financial derivatives as a percentage of total assets held by power generation firms in the EU region positively affects the Tobin Q index and, consequently, enhance their financial value. There is no statistically significant evidence to support the relationship between the growth of the domestic forward electricity market and the Tobin's Q index.

Energy, economy, financial development, and ecological footprint in Singapore

Asif Raihan — Wed, 20 Mar 2024 00:00:00 -0500

The escalating energy consumption resulting from rapid economic expansion is causing a decline in ecological health, therefore exacerbating the issue of climate change on a global scale. The juxtaposition of Singapore's ranking as having the most robust financial market with the largest ecological deficit globally implies the potential validity of the trade-off theory. The purpose of this study is to analyze the influence of Singapore's financial growth, energy use and economic development on the nation's ecological footprint. The investigation applied the Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) method by using the annual time series data spanning from 1979 to 2021. The stationarity of data was confirmed by using several unit root tests. The ARDL bounds test revealed evidence for long term cointegration among the variables. The empirical results exposed that a 1% upsurge in financial growth, energy use, and economic expansion leads to a corresponding long-term increase in ecological footprint of 0.77%, 1.11% and 0.32%, as well as short-term increases of 0.44%, 0.61%, and 0.13%, respectively. Several diagnostic tests were used to confirm the accuracy of the ARDL outcomes. The findings of the analysis hold significant relevance for policymakers as they can inform the development of prudent policies that promote sustained economic prosperity without compromising environmental integrity.