The study investigates the long-run impact of tourism development on ecological footprint by employing the time-varying coefficient cointegration approach (TVC), in addition to the conventional cointegration techniques in the case of Azerbaijan for the period of 1996–2014. Based on the TVC estimation results, the coefficient of tourism development, which is the income elasticity of environmental degradation, was found to be time invariant. The paper uses energy consumption, trade, urbanization, and institutional quality indicators as control explanatory variables. The estimation results revealed that trade and energy consumption have statistically significant and positive impact on ecological footprint, while the coefficients of the other explanatory variables were found to be insignificant. Both the conventional estimation methods and the TVC concluded that, for the relationship between ecological footprint and tourism development, the EKC hypothesis is not present in Azerbaijan. Policy implications for the resource-rich economies have been discussed.

This paper investigates the CO₂ emissions–economic growth relationship in Kazakhstan for the period 1992–2013. Johansen, ARDLBT, DOLS, FMOLS, and CCR cointegration methods are used for robustness purpose. We start with the cubic functional form to rule out any misleading results that can be caused by misspecification. Although the estimation results suggest “U”-shaped relationship, the turning point of income is out of the period. It means that the impact of economic growth on CO₂ is monotonically increasing in the long run indicating the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis does not hold for Kazakhstan. Moreover, we calculate that the income elasticity of CO₂ is about unity. The paper concludes that the Kazakhstani policymakers should focus on less energy-intensive sectors as well as using more renewable energy in order to avoid higher pollution effects of economic growth. They may also set new policy regulations for CO₂ reduction.

This paper examines the relationship between energy consumption, financial development, and economic growth in an oil-rich economy—Azerbaijan—employing cointegration techniques to the data ranging from 1992 to 2015. The results confirm the existence of a long-run relationship among the variables. Also, we find that there is a positive and statistically significant impact of financial development and economic growth on energy consumption in the long-run. The positive and statistically significant coefficient of financial development and decreasing volatility in the proxy for financial development over time can be considered as improvements in the financial system. Estimation results show that a 1% increase in financial development, proxied by the private credit indicator, and economic development increases energy consumption by 0.19% and 0.12%, respectively. The positive and significant impact of financial development on energy consumption on the backdrop of relatively cheaper energy prices due to rich oil and gas resources, should be considered by policymakers in their energy use, financial development, and economic growth related decisions.