Heterogeneous Impact of Tourism Development, and Economic Growth on Ecological Footprint in Singapore

In a few past decades, Singapore has maintained rapid economic growth, and has been listed as one of the top-visited countries. As a result, Singapore currently holds the world’s highest ecological deficit, signifying a situation where the demand for natural resources and ecosystem services in the region surpasses its sustainable capacity to regenerate and provide those resources. This study is conducted to investigate the nonparametric nexus structures between ecological footprint and Singapore’s economic activities from 1980 to 2016. By adopting the quantile regression and quantile-on-quantile methods, the outcomes show that tourism development and economic growth positively impact ecological sustainability at low-medium quantiles. At high quantiles (above 60% quantile) the outcome finds these impacts are inverted. That means at high of tourism development and economic growth, two macroeconomic variables might contribute to ecological sustainability. Based on these findings, the research may further strengthen the belief of Singapore’s policy-makers on promoting tourism and suggests some helpful lessons for emerging countries.