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In this study, as part of an attempt to foster sustainable development, the aim is directed at understanding the perspectives of domestic economic, financial and political risks in tourism development. On the other hand, the role of other agents of sustainable development: innovation, infrastructure, health and primary education and global crisis in tourism development, was illustrated.

To achieve this objective, the current study explored the (system) SYS-Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) technique for a panel of selected 73 economies over the period 2006–2017. This GMM approached is not undertaken without first establishing the stationarity (a preliminary test) of the employed dataset by utilizing the relevant unit root techniques.

First, the study found that minimizing risks from economic, financial and political aspects is significant and vital to the attractiveness of the tourism destinations and the eventual development of the tourism sector. Second, the study presents innovation or technological readiness and health and primary education as agents of sustainable development through the growth of international tourism arrivals while global crisis is significantly detrimental to tourism inflow.

Overall, the study presents the contribution of tourism as a pathway to sustainable development from unique dimensions. Investigating a large panel (of 73 countries) is a unique approach. In addition, considering the economic vulnerability of the panel countries from the aspects of risk arising from economic, financial and political aspects is another interesting dimension to the novelty of the study. Thus, this study offers relevant policies for tourism stakeholders.

In this paper, the authors investigate the inbound tourism demand elasticities of the Middle East and North African (MENA) countries. The authors emphasize the role of external and internal conflicts, world gross domestic product and relative prices over the period 1995–2017.

This study applies the heterogeneous panel data estimators based on the fully modified-OLS (FM-OLS), dynamic-OLS (DOLS) and the recently developed method of moments quantile regression (MMQR).

The empirical results indicate that the effect of external and internal conflicts on inbound tourism demand is negative and inelastic with external conflict having a stronger effect. The effect of both classifications of conflicts diminishes as the market share of the tourist destination increases. In addition, the role of the world GDP on tourism demand is positive and elastic, suggesting that tourism is a luxury good while an increase in relative prices diminishes inbound tourism demand.

The paper, therefore, concludes that if policy measures are not put in place to curtail incidences of conflicts, economic growth in these countries may suffer setbacks. This by implications could affect the attainment of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) targets.

The geographical location and the ambiance of the Coastline Mediterranean Countries (CMCs) advantageously present the region as a tourist destination with rich cultures. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

As such, this study investigates the dynamics of energy import and environmental quality in relation to international tourism development for nine CMCs over the period 1995–2013 using a pooled mean group approach.

Although the impacts of energy import, CO₂ (here as environmental quality) and GDP on international tourism receipts are observed to be significant and negative, international tourist arrival expectedly exerts positive and significant impact, all at the adjustment speed of 0.19. A heterogeneously robust Granger non-causality test further reveals a strong one-directional causal relationship from energy import to tourism receipts.

The dynamics of the energy market amidst persistent evolution of new source(s) of energy would evidently play a significant role in the region’s tourism sector. It then suggests policy direction to governments of the region and by extension the global tourism market.

By providing insight into the nexus of environment, energy and tourism development, the current study is the first that addresses the concern in the context of the CMCs.

Observation of misalignment of the house prices with fundamentals in Malta was recently investigated (Vakili-Zad and Hoekstra, 2011; Micallef, 2018). As such, this study aims to investigate nexus evidence of the housing market and production sector performance in Malta by using quarterly data spanning from 2005Q1 to 2016Q4.

Industrial expansion and development indicator-producer price index (ppi) and unemployment (uem) are used along with volatility index (vix) and fertility rate (frate) as control variables in a multivariate autoregressive distributed lag approach.

Precisely, the investigation reveals that any disequilibrium in the long-run equilibrium among these variables is subsequently corrected by the movement in the housing market vis-à-vis real residential property price. As the system is observed to adjust with a speed of 39.7 per cent in a situation of economic disequilibrium, the long-run impacts on the housing market are positive for ppi and vix but negative for frate and eum. The observed direction of the impacts in the short-run are the same as in the long-run for all variables. A reported sensitivity test indicates a very minimal differential impact for each variable in the long-run but with a significantly different adjustment parameter of 81.9 per cent. Also, the estimated system posits a very stable model that is void of serial correlation and heteroskedasticity.

In view of the vibrant nature of the real estate and the housing sector of the country, consideration of the effective policy instruments provided by this study is strongly encouraged. On a wider note, these practicable tools could further be recommended to other regional countries.

The research presents a novel perspective of the real estate and housing sector of Malta, specifically in the light of economic diversification. The country’s housing sector is studied in relation with the performance of other sectors for the first time.

Studies have shown that economic expansion is characterized by the activities in the productive and industrial sectors. And, recently, the Republic of Cyprus has consistently experienced a relative economic growth. In this light, the current study revisits the dynamics of the housing market and its fundamentals for Cyprus using the quarterly data from 2005Q1 to 2016Q4.

Producer price and industrial production indices were employed along with the gross domestic product per capita and urban population as control variables. The empirical technique employed is the dynamic and fully modified ordinary least square approaches where unobserved factors are potentially controlled.

Empirical evidence of long-run relationship exists between the observed indicators and the house price. Indicatively, statistical evidence reveals a positive and significant long-run relationship between the producer price index and the house price. In a similar manner, there is a strongly significant but a negative long-run nexus of industrial production index and the house price. And, expectedly, the observed long-run nexus of the house price and each of real gross domestic product per capita and the urban population is positive and significant. Interestingly, there exists significant unidirectional Granger causality from each of the independent variables to the housing price. Lastly, the robustness check and the diagnostic test of the investigation suggest a very consistent result and stable model with no problems of serial correlation and heteroskedasticity.

The fragility of Cyprus's housing market suggests the need for the adoption of an effective policy framework.

Although the housing market has been studied in the context of the Republic of Cyprus, the novelty is hinged on the joint incorporation of the industrial and producer price indices in a housing model of the study.

In spite of the drive toward environmental sustainability and the attainment of sustainable development goals (SDGs), coal, oil and natural gas energy utilization has remained the Turkey's largest energy mix. In view of this concern, this study examined the role of coal and oil energy utilization in environmental sustainability drive of Turkey from the framework of sustainable development vis-à-vis income expansion over an extended period of 1965–2017.

In this regard, the authors employ carbon emission as an environmental and dependent variable while the Gross Domestic Product per capita (GDPC), coal and oil energy consumption are the explanatory variables employed in the study.

The study found that both energy mixes (coal and oil) have a detrimental impact on the environment in both the short and long run, but oil consumption exerts a less severe impact as compared to coal energy. In addition, sustainable development via income growth is not feasible because the income–environmental degradation relationship follows a U-shaped pattern (invalidating the Environmental Kuznets curve, EKC hypothesis) especially when coal and oil remained the major source of lubrication to the economy. At least the EKC hypothesis is unattainable in Turkey as long as the country's major energy mix or primary energy (coal and oil) is in use, thus the application of other socioeconomic, macroeconomic policies might be essential.

Considering the lingering energy challenge associated with Turkey, this novel insight further presented useful policy perspectives to the government and stakeholders in the country's energy sector.

This evidence (the U-shaped relationship) is further ascertained when the aggregate primary energy is employed. Thus, this study provides a novel insight that attaining a sustainable economic growth in Turkey remained a herculean task as long as a more aggressive energy transition approach is not encouraged.

A reflection on some supposed oil exporting states constantly reminds of the (in) validity of the resource curse hypothesis and environmental consequences of oil exploration. In Africa, especially the case of Nigeria, the argument has remained whether the country's voluminous deposit of crude oil has positively affected the livelihood of the people. The study aims to examine the impact of oil production on the income level in Nigeria.

In this context, the study first examined validity of Dutch disease in Nigeria, thus providing a foundation to further establish the resource curse hypothesis. As such, the impact of crude oil production (CRUDE), square of crude oil production (CRUDESQ), crude oil reserves (RESERVES) and population (POP) on economic growth over the period of 1980–2018 is examined through the combination of autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL), fully-modified ordinary least square (FMOLS) and canonical cointegration regression (CCR) methods.

While the study revealed the existence of Dutch disease in Nigeria, the resource curse hypothesis is also valid. However, the study found that the resource curse hypothesis in Nigeria can be over-turned when the CRUDE attains a certain maximum threshold, i.e. when crude oil output is doubled over time. In addition, either of crude RESERVES or oil rent (RENT) is seen as a limiting factor to economic growth while POP poses a positive and desirable impact on the country's economic development.

Thus, the implication of a U-shaped relationship between oil production and income level is that Nigeria's natural resources exploration could be employed to over-turn the potential of resource curse hypothesis by increasing exploration while the sources of leakages and misappropriation of the oil revenues are deliberately mitigated. Other useful socio-economic policies were proposed for the Government.

The last decades have experienced increasingly integrated global political and economic dynamics ranging especially from the influence of exchange rates and trade amid other sources of uncertainties. The purpose of this study is to examine the exchange rate dynamics of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) and the Republic of Turkey.

Given this perceived global dynamics, the current study examined the BRICS countries and the Republic of Turkey's exchange rate dynamics by using the United States (US) monthly dollar exchange rate data between January 2002 and August 2019. The price bubble which is expressed as exceeding the real value of assets' prices which is observably caused by speculative movements is investigated by using the Supremum Augmented Dickey-Fuller (SADF) and the Generalized Supremum Augmented Dickey-Fuller (GSADF) approaches.

Accordingly, the GSADF test results opined that there are price bubbles in the dollar exchange rate of other countries except for the United States Dollar (USD)/Indian Rupee (INR) exchange rate. As the related countries are classified as developing countries in terms of their structure, they are also expectedly the subject of speculative exchange rate movements. Speculative movements in exchange rates may cause serious problems in national economies.

Thus, the current study provides a policy framework to the BRICS countries and the Republic of Turkey.

The recent dynamics of trade policy, especially that is associated with the United States of America (USA) and China, has not only triggered policy adjustments in two economies, it has also implied an uncertainty spillover to other economies across the globe. Consequently, the current study attempts to examine the effect of uncertainties in the USA–China trade policies on stock market indexes. In addition, the cointegration evidence between the USA–China trade policy uncertainty index and of the leading Global South fragile quintet (Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa, India and Turkey) stock market indices is investigated.

Mainly, the FMOLS and DOLS Granger causality analysis with cointegration coefficient estimators were employed for the dataset over the monthly data period of March 2003 and July 2019.

Accordingly, the study found a long-term relationship between the USA–China Trade Policy Uncertainty index and the stock exchange indexes. In addition, a causal relationship was established from the change in the USA–China Trade Policy Uncertainty index to the change in the stock market indexes of almost all of the examined countries (Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa, India and Turkey). In addition, the nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lag approach further offers evidence of asymmetric relationship among the examined indicators.

Moreover, this study contributed to the existing literature because it employed the indexes of BIST100, BOVESPA, BSE Sensex 30, IDX Composite and South Africa 40 in a novel approach. Thus, the study posited a useful policy guideline for associated economic uncertainties arising from the trade dispute, such as the case of the world’s two largest trading giants or partners (i.e. the USA and China).