Replication package for “Mangrove Degradation and Tourism-Driven Economic Dynamics in a Caribbean SIDS: Evidence from a VECM”
Description
This repository contains the Stata code, input datasets, and documentation required to reproduce the empirical analyses reported in the article Mangrove Degradation and Tourism-Driven Economic Dynamics in a Caribbean SIDS: Evidence from a VECM, accepted for publication in Ocean & Coastal Management. The package includes the complete Stata do-file, processed datasets used in the econometric analysis, step-by-step procedures, and documentation describing the workflow from data preparation to estimation, diagnostic testing, impulse response analysis, variance decomposition, and figure generation. This study examines the macroeconomic effects of mangrove degradation in the Dominican Republic, a tourism-dependent small island developing state (SIDS). Using a Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) with annual data from 1995 to 2023, the research explores the relationships among real GDP, international tourist arrivals, accommodation capacity, and mangrove capital. The findings reveal significant ecological and economic linkages. In the short term, mangrove degradation negatively affects GDP growth, tourist arrivals, and accommodation capacity, and Granger causality tests indicate that mangrove capital influences these variables. In the long run, a positive relationship between mangrove capital and GDP suggests that ecosystem depletion restricts sustainable economic growth. The estimated annual economic loss due to degradation is about USD 75 million, or 4.2% of the value of coastal and marine ecosystem services. Robustness checks confirm the stability of results across pre-crisis and pre-COVID periods. These findings highlight the need to prioritize mangrove conservation in macroeconomic policy for coastal tourism-dependent SIDS.
Files
Steps to reproduce
1. Download the complete replication package. 2. Open Stata 19 or a later compatible version. 3. Place the main dataset, Data-código-largo.dta, in the same directory as the do-file. 4. Open the file VECM_DR_replication_code_public_sanitized.do. 5. Set the working directory to the folder containing the do-file and the dataset. 6. Run the complete do-file from the beginning. 7. The script will reproduce the unit-root tests, lag-selection tests, Johansen cointegration tests, baseline VECM estimation, diagnostics, IRF/FEVD analysis, economic-exposure calculations, robustness checks, Granger tests, and structural-break checks reported in the article. 8. Output files, including logs, graphs, IRF files, and diagnostic figures, will be saved automatically in the Output subfolders created by the script. 9. If the zandrews command is not installed, install it in Stata before running the structural-break section using: ssc install zandrews.