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Driving the circular economy through public environmental and energy R&D: Evidence from SMEs in the European Union.
- Source :
-
Ecological Economics . Apr2021, Vol. 182, pN.PAG-N.PAG. 1p. - Publication Year :
- 2021
-
Abstract
- Governments at the EU and the member state level are placing increased emphasis on public research and development (R&D) for energy and the environment to advance a circular economy (CE). To achieve CE goals, it is critical to engage SMEs as they represent the vast majority of enterprises in the EU. To date, there is a lack of evidence regarding the impact of these public R&D investments on SMEs' CE activities. We address this gap by analysing the impact of public environmental and energy R&D on CE implementation and investment by SMEs. The study draws from a multi-level database of 10,618 SMEs across 28 EU member states for the period 2013–2015 from the Flash Eurobarometer 441 survey and country-level data from other EU sources. Employing a mixed-level probit regression, we find that the knowledge generated by public environmental and energy R&D, defined as country-level investments in this activity from 2004 to 2015, positively affects SMEs' implementation of CE activities. Additionally, the study finds that public environmental and energy R&D affects the level of SMEs' investment in CE activities negatively, suggesting that more public R&D can substitute for the financial efforts that SMEs have to take when implementing CE activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 09218009
- Volume :
- 182
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Ecological Economics
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 148501639
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2020.106884