Asymmetric role of tourism development and technology innovation on carbon dioxide emission reduction in the Chinese economy: Fresh insights from QARDL approach

Abstract This study examines the association between tourism development, technology innovation, and carbon emissions by simultaneously testing Environment Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis in China. The study develops and uses a novel composite index of tourism development and technology innovation. Utilizing quarterly data from 1995Q1 to 2017Q4, the study employs QARDL (Quantile Autoregressive Distributive Lag) approach and Granger causality‐in‐quantiles. The outcome of the study reveals that the observed relationship is quantile‐dependent, which may disclose misleading results in previous studies using traditional linear methodologies (such as OLS/ARDL) that address the averages. Primarily, the findings indicate that tourism development (TOR) and technology innovation (TII) significantly mitigate the level of carbon dioxide emissions (CO 2 ) in the long run at lower‐higher (0.05–0.95) emissions quantiles and higher‐highest (0.7–0.95) emissions quantiles, respectively. Economic growth (GDP) and globalization (GLO) exert a positive asymmetric influence on CO 2 only at lower‐medium (0.05–0.40) emissions quantiles and medium‐higher emissions quantiles (0.50–0.95), respectively. In the short run, TII, and GDP 2 possess an insignificant impact across all emissions levels, while TOR shows a positive influence on CO 2 only at lowest‐lower (0.05–0.20) emissions quantiles. The study confirms the presence of the EKC hypothesis at lower‐higher (0.05–0.70) emissions quantiles in the long run. Moreover, the outcomes of Granger causality in quantiles confirm asymmetric bidirectional quantile causality between TOR, TII, GLO, and CO 2 , while a unidirectional causality running from GDP to CO 2 . The results recommend that the Chinese government should implement integrated “tourism‐technology” policies based on the asymmetric emissions‐reduction effects of tourism and technology innovation in the long run.