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Are eco‐labels good for the local economy?
Author(s) -
Bernini Cristina,
Cerqua Augusto
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
papers in regional science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.937
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1435-5957
pISSN - 1056-8190
DOI - 10.1111/pirs.12502
Subject(s) - tourism , sustainability , homogeneous , destinations , sustainable tourism , economics , economy , empirical research , business , environmental policy , environmental resource management , political science , ecology , philosophy , physics , epistemology , law , biology , thermodynamics
We evaluate whether the adoption of a well‐known transition management instrument in the tourism industry can support simultaneously economic growth as well as sustainability. We create a detailed dataset at the municipality level and use a recently developed policy evaluation technique to investigate the causal impact of the Blue Flag programme on the local economies. Estimates show that this eco‐label is not effective at enhancing the local economy; findings are homogeneous across destinations. This empirical result is in line with the recent theoretical literature arguing that a single policy does not suffice for transiting towards a sustainable economy.