Title: The effects of educational tourism on the sources of growth: evidence from a Kaleckian macro model

Authors: Chor Foon Tang; Hylmee Matahir

Addresses: Centre for Policy Research and International Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 USM, Penang, Malaysia ' Faculty of Business and Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA Sabah Branch, Kota Kinabalu Campus, 88997 Sabah, Malaysia

Abstract: The tourism industry is playing an increasingly important role in Malaysia's economic growth. However, scant attention has been accorded to one of its vital sub-sectors, namely educational tourism and its role as a potential catalyst of growth, especially when international student's arrivals have increased exponentially over the past two decades. This paper seeks to elucidate the role of educational tourism in influencing economic growth in Malaysia by looking at its dynamic response to other growth components using a Kaleckian model. The data used in this study consist of quarterly data from 2002:Q1 to 2014:Q4, while the econometric methods deployed include the structural vector autoregression (SVAR) framework and the impulse response function. The results suggest that educational tourism can contribute to economic growth through its role as a catalyst for increased productivity and capacity utilisation. However, the study fails to find significant cross-linkages between educational tourism and investment.

Keywords: capacity utilisation; educational tourism; economic growth; Kaleckian model; international students; Malaysia; SVAR; structural vector autoregression; tourism-led growth (TLG) hypothesis.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTP.2021.114443

International Journal of Tourism Policy, 2021 Vol.11 No.1, pp.1 - 28

Received: 15 Aug 2019
Accepted: 10 Jun 2020
Published online: 22 Apr 2021 *

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