IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ete/ecoomp/758339.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Adoption of circular economy innovations: The role of artificial intelligence

Author

Listed:
  • Dirk Czarnitzki
  • Robin Lepers
  • Maikel Pellens

Abstract

The circular economy represents a systematic shift in production and consumption, aimed at extending the life cycle of products and materials while minimizing resource use and waste. Achieving the goals of the circular economy presents firms with the challenge of innovating new products, technologies, and business models, however. This paper explores the role of artificial intelligence as an enabler of circular economy innovations. Through an empirical analysis of the German Community Innovation Survey, we show that firms investing in artificial intelligence are more likely to introduce circular economy innovations than those that do not. Additionally, the results indicate that the use of artificial intelligence enhances firms’ abilities to lower production externalities (for instance, reducing pollution) through these innovations. The findings of this paper underscore artificial intelligence’s potential to accelerate the transition to the circular economy.

Suggested Citation

  • Dirk Czarnitzki & Robin Lepers & Maikel Pellens, 2025. "Adoption of circular economy innovations: The role of artificial intelligence," Working Papers of ECOOM - Centre for Research and Development Monitoring 758339, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), ECOOM - Centre for Research and Development Monitoring.
  • Handle: RePEc:ete:ecoomp:758339
    Note: paper number MSI_2503
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://lirias.kuleuven.be/retrieve/795731
    File Function: Published version
    Download Restriction: KU Leuven intranet only, request a copy at https://lirias.kuleuven.be/handle/20.500.12942/758339
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alberto Abadie & Guido W. Imbens, 2006. "Large Sample Properties of Matching Estimators for Average Treatment Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 74(1), pages 235-267, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. John A Maluccio & Tia Palermo & Suneetha Kadiyala & Rahul Rawat, 2015. "Improving Health-Related Quality of Life among People Living with HIV: Results from an Impact Evaluation of a Food Assistance Program in Uganda," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(8), pages 1-17, August.
    2. Lucija Muehlenbachs & Elisheba Spiller & Christopher Timmins, 2015. "The Housing Market Impacts of Shale Gas Development," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(12), pages 3633-3659, December.
    3. van de Walle, Dominique & Mu, Ren, 2007. "Fungibility and the flypaper effect of project aid: Micro-evidence for Vietnam," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(2), pages 667-685, November.
    4. de Brauw, Alan & Gilligan, Daniel O. & Hoddinott, John & Roy, Shalini, 2014. "The Impact of Bolsa Família on Women’s Decision-Making Power," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 487-504.
    5. Lechner, Michael, 2018. "Modified Causal Forests for Estimating Heterogeneous Causal Effects," IZA Discussion Papers 12040, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Qiangmin, XI & Peng, JI, 2023. "Does the development zone promote population urbanization? Evidence from China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    7. José de Sousa & Guillaume Hollard, 2021. "From Micro to Macro Gender Differences: Evidence from Field Tournaments," Post-Print hal-03389151, HAL.
    8. Jeffrey H. Bergstrand & Scott L. Baier, 2010. "An Evaluation of Swiss Free Trade Agreements Using Matching Econometrics," Aussenwirtschaft, University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science, Swiss Institute for International Economics and Applied Economics Research, vol. 65(3), pages 239-250, September.
    9. Kitagawa, Toru & Muris, Chris, 2016. "Model averaging in semiparametric estimation of treatment effects," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 193(1), pages 271-289.
    10. Rajeev Dehejia, 2013. "The Porous Dialectic: Experimental and Non-Experimental Methods in Development Economics," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2013-011, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    11. Roberto Cominetti & Juan Diaz & Jorge Rivera, 2014. "Large sample properties of an optimization-based matching estimator," Working Papers wp389, University of Chile, Department of Economics.
    12. Cabras, Stefano & Fidrmuc, Jan & de Dios Tena Horrillo, Juan, 2017. "Minimum wage and employment: Escaping the parametric straitjacket," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 11, pages 1-20.
    13. Michael Lechner & Ruth Miquel & Conny Wunsch, 2011. "Long‐Run Effects Of Public Sector Sponsored Training In West Germany," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 9(4), pages 742-784, August.
    14. Susan Athey & Guido W. Imbens & Stefan Wager, 2018. "Approximate residual balancing: debiased inference of average treatment effects in high dimensions," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 80(4), pages 597-623, September.
    15. Nitzan Tzur-Ilan, 2017. "The Effect of Credit Constraints on Housing Choices: The Case of LTV limit," Bank of Israel Working Papers 2017.03, Bank of Israel.
    16. Christopher Conlon & Julie Holland Mortimer, 2021. "Empirical properties of diversion ratios," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 52(4), pages 693-726, December.
    17. Clements, Tom & Suon, Seng & Wilkie, David S. & Milner-Gulland, E.J., 2014. "Impacts of Protected Areas on Local Livelihoods in Cambodia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(S1), pages 125-134.
    18. Ghadir Asadi & Mohammad H. Mostafavi-Dehzooei, 2022. "The Role of Learning in Adaptation to Technology: The Case of Groundwater Extraction," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-37, June.
    19. Maya M. Papineau, 2015. "Setting the Standard: Commercial Electricity Consumption Responses to Energy Codes," Carleton Economic Papers 15-05, Carleton University, Department of Economics.
    20. Apps, Patricia & Mendolia, Silvia & Walker, Ian, 2013. "The impact of pre-school on adolescents’ outcomes: Evidence from a recent English cohort," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 183-199.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Circular economy; Innovation; Artificial intelligence;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q55 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Technological Innovation
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ete:ecoomp:758339. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: library EBIB (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://feb.kuleuven.be/centers/ecoom .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.