On the Relationship between Tourist Flows and Household Expenditure in Barbados: A Dynamic OLS Approach

Keynesians propose that increases in tourist arrivals are associated with an expansion in private spending through the multiplier effect. To test this hypothesis, this study augments a simple consumption function with tourist arrivals and employs the dynamic OLS method to compute the short and long run relationships of the variables. Results suggest that while tourist arrivals have a positive correlation with household expenditure in the short run, it does not Granger cause household expenditure consumption.