Circular Economy Innovation and Environmental Sustainability Impact on Economic Growth: An Integrated Model for Sustainable Development
Abstract
:1. Introduction
- RQ1:
- Are CE components supportive of sustainability?
- RQ2:
- To what extent do the CE components impact GDP?
- H1a:
- The CE “environment” aspect has a positive impact on GDP.
- H1b:
- The CE “social” aspect has a positive impact on GDP.
- H1c:
- The CE “economic” aspect has a positive impact on GDP.
2. Literature Review on Circular Economy
2.1. From a Linear to a Circular Economy
2.2. From Circularity to Sustainability
3. Materials and Methods
3.1. Circular Economy Indicators
- -
- Environment Tax Revenues (defined as var1)
- -
- Recycling Rate of Municipal Waste (defined as var2)
- -
- Private Investment, Jobs, Gross Value Added related to CE (defined as var3)
- -
- Patents related to Recycling (defined as var4)
- -
- Trade-in Recyclable Raw Materials (defined as var5)
3.2. Data
4. Results
5. Discussion and Conclusions
- (1)
- all CE indicators considered in this study are found to positively affect economic growth;
- (2)
- if the CE indicators are associated with the sustainable economic development triangle adopted for the circular economy (environmental–social–economic), the findings show that they have a positive effect on economic growth as well;
- (3)
- theoretically and empirically based, the study underpins the necessity of innovation in the core of CE;
- (4)
- this study emphasizes and strongly supports the stipulation of the collaboration among academia, government, business, and civil society.
Author Contributions
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
Appendix A
References
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Variable | Variable Definition * | Observ. | St. Dev. | Min | Max | Mean | Median |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Gdp | GDP per cap. growth (annual %) | 504 | 3.710 | −14.560 | 23.985 | 2.219 | 2.0981 |
log_tax | Log (Proportion of env. tax revenues in GDP) | 502 | 0.221 | 0.457 | 1.6094 | 0.941 | 0.9321 |
log_rec | Log (Recycling Rate of Municipal Waste) | 487 | 1.028 | −1.609 | 4.214 | 2.973 | 3.2847 |
log_innov | Lvog (Priv. Inv., Jobs, Gross Val. Add. x Patents related to Recycling) | 145 | 2.817 | 1.784 | 14.818 | 9.634 | 9.6001 |
log_trade | Log (Trade in Recycl. Raw Mat.) | 392 | 2.407 | 0.693 | 14.493 | 10.864 | 11.3897 |
Economic Growth [(GDP Per Capita)] | EU Countries |
---|---|
Environmental Tax Revenues [L1.log_tax] | 11.6908 *** (4.0962) |
Recycling Rate of Municip. Waste [L1.log_rec] | 2.4378 *** (0.7476) |
Innovation (Priv. Invest, Jobs in CE * Patents related Recycling) [L1.log_innov] | 0.6854 * (0.4235) |
Trade in Recyclable Raw Mat. [L1.log_trade] | 0.0863 (0.5874) |
R-sq. (overall) | 0.0029 |
F-Stat | 10.80 *** |
Rho | 0.7460 |
Observations | 135 |
Nb. of Groups | 23 |
Economic Growth [(GDP Per Capita)] | EU Countries |
---|---|
GDP per capita [L1.gdp] | −0.0814 (0.0749) |
Environmental Tax Revenues [L1.log_tax] | 15.6481 *** (3.3311) |
Recycling Rate of Municip. Waste [L1.log_rec] | 1.6581 *** (0.5499) |
Innovation (Priv. Invest, Jobs in CE * Patents related Recycling) [L1.log_innov] | 0.4267 (0.3657) |
Trade-in Recyclable Raw Mat. [L1.log_trade] | 0.4621 (0.4599) |
Wald chi2(5) | 55.71 |
Prob > chi2 | 0.0000 |
Number of instruments | 89 |
Observations | 101 |
Nb. of Groups | 22 |
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Hysa, E.; Kruja, A.; Rehman, N.U.; Laurenti, R. Circular Economy Innovation and Environmental Sustainability Impact on Economic Growth: An Integrated Model for Sustainable Development. Sustainability 2020, 12, 4831. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12124831
Hysa E, Kruja A, Rehman NU, Laurenti R. Circular Economy Innovation and Environmental Sustainability Impact on Economic Growth: An Integrated Model for Sustainable Development. Sustainability. 2020; 12(12):4831. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12124831
Chicago/Turabian StyleHysa, Eglantina, Alba Kruja, Naqeeb Ur Rehman, and Rafael Laurenti. 2020. "Circular Economy Innovation and Environmental Sustainability Impact on Economic Growth: An Integrated Model for Sustainable Development" Sustainability 12, no. 12: 4831. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12124831
APA StyleHysa, E., Kruja, A., Rehman, N. U., & Laurenti, R. (2020). Circular Economy Innovation and Environmental Sustainability Impact on Economic Growth: An Integrated Model for Sustainable Development. Sustainability, 12(12), 4831. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12124831