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Tourism has become one of the most important sectors in many countries, significantly contributing to their economic growth and development. However, the expansion of tourism has also brought about various environmental and social challenges. The relationship between tourism, economic growth, trade openness, and the environment is diverse and complex. The objective of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the international tourism development index, GDP per capita, CO2 emissions, trade openness index as well as the energy intensity index in EU 27, over the 1995–2019 period. A composite index for international tourism was developed using the Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Panel Autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach is used to reveal the long- and short-run impact of GDP per capita, CO2 emissions, trade openness index as well as the energy intensity index on the tourism development index. Panel ARDL estimates confirm some of our research hypotheses: at the level of EU countries, there is a short-run relationship between tourism and GDP per capita, but only in a few EU countries, trade openness influences tourism development index. Dumitrescu-Hurlin causality test confirms long-run feedback relationship between tourism development index and trade openness, between tourism development index and CO2 emissions, and between tourism development index and GDP and unilateral causality running from tourism development index towards energy efficiency.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought rampant changes in skill needed in the labor market. It has accentuated technological disruption leaving millions in dire need of reskilling and upskilling. In this paper, we empirically analyze the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic related lockdown on the thrust of skills upgradation among people. By analyzing the Google trends data of 13 countries, we test the effect of the lockdown implementations on the urge to upgrade the skills through online searches for skills enhancement. Using difference-in-difference estimation approach, we found a substantial hike in the frequency of search terms related to skills upgradation. Our results suggest that people are utilizing the excess time, made available due to lockdowns, by exploring avenues to enhance their skills to accumulate human capital. The online educational platforms have been proven vital. The findings of this study establish the causal link between use of online education platforms and human capital development.

Considering the necessity of achieving economic development by keeping the quality of the environment, the aim of this paper is to study the impact of economic growth on GHG emissions in a sample of Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries (V4 countries, Bulgaria and Romania) in the period of 1996–2019. In the context of dynamic ARDL panel and environmental Kuznets curve (EKC), the relationship between GHG and GDP is N-shaped. A U-shaped relationship was obtained in the renewable Kuznets curve (RKC). Energy consumption, domestic credit to the private sector, and labor productivity contribute to pollution, while renewable energy consumption reduces the GHG emissions. However, more efforts are required for promoting renewable energy in the analyzed countries.

The paper analyzes the reaction of residential property prices to sustainability attributes and the extent to which they capitalize the effects of sustainability on real estate markets in EU-28 countries in the period 2000–2018. Given that the sustainable real estate market is mainly driven by demand, the sustainability attributes included in the study reflect both buyers’ expectations and their investment potential in sustainable residential properties, and developers’ efforts to become more “sustainable” through responsible property investment. In order to correspond to the current meaning of sustainable development, the variables capture the four dimensions that give content to the concept of the quadruple bottom line: economic, social, environmental and institutional. Using panel data and the two-stage least squares (2SLS) method, the research reveals a pronounced sensitivity of residential property prices to all sustainability dimensions in countries considered leaders in implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), characterized by a strong institutional environment, and efficient and transparent real estate markets. In countries less committed to SGD implementation, weak governance and higher corruption negatively affect the transparency of real estate markets, and the dynamics of the price of residential transactions are determined only by the economic and social dimensions of sustainability.

The dynamic stochastic effects regressions on population, affluence, and technology model used in this study reveals the nonlinear effects of urbanization routes on CO2 emissions in China, India, Indonesia, the United States, and Brazil during 1970–2020, using dynamic seemingly unrelated regression, dynamic ordinary least square, and fully modified ordinary least square techniques. The empirical analysis shows that urbanization and the proportion of small cities contribute significantly to CO2 emissions, while the square of urbanization and the square of the proportion of small cities significantly reduce CO2 emissions, thus supporting the inverted U-shaped relationship for the selected countries. However, the effect of the proportion of large cities significantly reduces CO2 emissions, while the square of the proportion of large cities significantly promotes CO2 emissions, supporting a U-shaped relationship for specific countries. Gross domestic product, industrial development, and transport infrastructure contribute significantly to carbon emissions, while renewable energy generation significantly reduces carbon emissions. The country-level augmented mean group estimator in the analysis supports an inverted U-shaped relationship between urbanization and carbon emissions and a U-shaped relationship between the proportion of large cities and carbon emissions in all selected countries. There is also an inverted U-shaped relationship between the proportion of small cities and carbon emissions in China, India, Indonesia, and Brazil. The causality test results acknowledge bidirectional causality between urbanization and carbon dioxide emissions; between urbanization squared and carbon dioxide emissions; between the proportion of the largest cities and carbon dioxide emissions, and between renewable energy and carbon dioxide emissions. This study recommends renewable energy options, green urban infrastructure, and digital technologies to improve the environmental quality of urban areas. [Formula: see text]

Low coverage of urban and rural population to waste collection servicesleads to various environmental threats caused by uncontrolled wastedisposal. New EU regulations on waste management issues transposed intonational laws have improved this sector, but, the population access to suchservices is still low compared to others new EU members. A multi-scaleapproach of this indicator is a necessary tool for a proper analysis ofthis environmental issue. The maps reveal that Romanian development regions(NUTS 2) have the lowest coveragerates at EU level in 2010. Furthermore, major disparities are reflectedbetween Romanian counties in 2010. Thematic maps outline a comparativeanalysis at national and regional scale (Romanian counties & cities andcommunes of North-East Region) between urban vs rural areas in 2010. Thesegeographical approaches are necessary for a better monitoring process ofwaste management sector.

Population ageing represents a dramatic scenario and a progressive process inducing major changes in the dynamics of the population and especially in the age structure. The ageing population process is a phenomenon relevant to define not only demographic but also social, cultural, and territorial transformations in relation to the urban settlements. In this article, we present a case study regarding the ageing process persistent in urban areas from the counties of the Transylvania region. The present study emphasizing the evolution of the older adults age group between 2015 and 2019, drawing a forecast model for the prognosis period 2020–2050. The tendencies of the population decline process are revealed by the outcomes of the ageing index, outlining some long-term effects of population ageing over the years. The study of this phenomenon reveals an important framework at the regional level of Transylvania and points out the means to determine its existence in other regions or countries, since it affects the urban population evolution and its dynamics.

This study aims to examine the impact of coal energy consumption on the economic progress in Pakistan by using annual time series data during 1972–2019. Three-unit root tests were employed to rectify the variables’ stationarity. The quantile regression approach with the extension of cointegration regression test was utilized to check the variables interaction with the economic progress. The outcomes of the quantile regression uncover that coal energy consumption in power sector and coal energy consumption in brick kilns have adverse influence to the economic progress, while total coal energy consumption has a productive association with the economic progress. Similarly, the findings of cointegration regression analysis uncover that via FMOLS (Fully Modified Least Squares) and DOLS (Dynamic Least Squares) that variables coal energy consumption in power sector and brick kilns have an adverse connection with the economic progress, while total coal energy consumption uncover a productive linkage to the economic progress in Pakistan. Pakistan is still facing a deep energy crisis because of the lack of energy production from cheap sources. New possible policies are required in this direction to improve the energy sector by paying more attention to the alternative energy sources to foster the economic progress.