The role of non-oil exports, tourism and renewable energy to achieve sustainable economic growth: What we learn from the experience of Saudi Arabia

This study attempts to examine the theoretical and empirical impacts of non-petroleum exports and tourism on the economic growth of Saudi Arabia. In doing so, the author's use the quarterly data of studied variables covering the period of 1980q1-2017q4 and used the ARDL bound test, Johansen cointegration and Gregory-Hansen cointegration methods. The empirical findings mention that the non-oil exports and tourism have positive effects on the economic growth. The results suggest that enhancing the non-petroleum exports might be a good strategy for sustainable growth and as alternative for petroleum products. Further, the empirics mention long run cointegration between tourism, renewable energy, capital, and economic growth in Saudi Arabia. The detailed findings imply that capital formation can be utilized to enhance the investments on renewable energy and tourism facilities, as the tourism and renewable energy are very crucial for the economic growth of Saudi Arabia. As a concluding remark, the study argues that Saudi Arabia should enhance the investments on tourism and renewable energy in the objective of reducing oil-dependence and for sustainable economic growth. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.