[01] Fateh Habibi, Department Economics, Faulty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran.

This study investigates a long-run relationship and the Granger-causality among tourism development (TD) and economic growth in sample of 85 countries classified in four groups namely Europe, Africa, Asia and American countries for annual data from 2000 to 2013. The results demonstrate that tourism development and economic growth are cointegrated; on the other hand, a long run relationship can be inferred among these two variables in four groups. The results of panel Granger Causality test show the existence of bi-directional and unidirectional causality between tourism development and economic growth in Europe and Asia countries respectively. Also, there is no causal relationship between variables in Africa countries.

Tourism Development, Economic Growth, Panel Causality

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