This study investigates the relationship between technological innovation, renewable energy, economic growth, and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in a group of six specific Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries from 1990 to 2019. The study utilizes the modified innovation environmental Kuznets curve model (ICC) theory to examine the potential existence of an inverted U-shaped curve between innovation and environmental quality in these selected MENA countries. Various econometric methods are employed to analyse the data. The results show a positive and significant impact of patents for residents on CO₂ emissions, affirming the influence of patents on environmental quality. Additionally, the square of patents demonstrates a significant negative relationship with carbon emissions, providing evidence for the inverted U shape of Claudia’s theory. These findings imply that the ICC is relevant to the selected countries, with the quadratic patent variable suggesting that the use of innovative technology initially increases emissions but reaches a turning point after a certain threshold.

In recent years, the importance of developing the tourism sector and diversifying income sources has grown in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. This paper estimates the impact of tourism industry development on income equality in the GCC region from the first quarter of 2014 to the fourth quarter of 2023. Furthermore, this paper evaluates the existence of the Kuznets curve and its implications for income distribution. To achieve these objectives, this study employs panel cointegration tests and the cross-sectionally augmented autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) model. The dataset combines quarterly data from the World Bank and national statistical agencies, including indicators such as tourism revenue, international arrivals, government effectiveness, and education expenditure (used as a proxy for income equality). The results indicate that tourism revenue (TOU) has a significant and positive long-run effect on income equality (0.14%). In the short run, the squared term of tourism revenue (TOU2) becomes significant and positive (0.01%), but the findings do not support the Kuznets curve hypothesis. Furthermore, the number of international travelers (TRAV) has a negative and significant effect in the long run, while government effectiveness (GE) is negative and significant in both the long and short run. A key limitation of the study lies in the use of education expenditure as a proxy for income equality, due to the unavailability of consistent inequality metrics across the GCC countries.

The global energy transition requires countries to rapidly expand renewable energy infrastructure, yet the factors associated with this transition remain comparatively underexplored in resource-dependent economies. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) represents a particularly important case: despite their substantial role in global hydrocarbon markets, they are simultaneously pursuing renewable energy expansion and economic diversification. Examining this transition therefore offers insights not only for the GCC but also for other hydrocarbon-dependent economies facing similar diversification challenges. This study examines, for the first time, the association between tourism development and renewable energy capacity share across six GCC countries from 2014 to 2024. Unlike most existing studies that use renewable energy consumption as the dependent variable, this study focuses on renewable energy capacity share, which more directly reflects long-term infrastructure investment and commitment to the energy transition. Using a balanced panel of 66 observations, the empirical analysis tests for cross-sectional dependence, applies the second-generation cross-sectionally augmented IPS (CIPS) unit root test, and estimates alternative panel specifications, with the fixed-effects model selected as the preferred specification based on the Hausman test. The results show that tourism receipts and foreign direct investment are positively and significantly associated with renewable energy capacity share, while GDP per capita shows no robust significant association. These findings highlight the potential relevance of tourism development and foreign investment to renewable energy expansion in hydrocarbon-dependent economies and provide policy-relevant evidence for countries seeking to align economic diversification with the energy transition.