IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/zewdip/19016.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Employment and performance effects of circular economy innovations

Author

Listed:
  • Horbach, Jens
  • Rammer, Christian

Abstract

Circular economy (CE) describes an economic concept that aims at saving resources by minimizing the use of material and energy over the entire life-cycle or products, including repair, reuse and recycling. CE innovations help to realize the goals of a sustainable development and target both the environmental, economic and social dimensions of sustainability. This paper looks at the economic and social dimensions by investigating the performance and employment effects of CE innovations at the firm level. CE innovations such as the reduction of energy and material consumption or the recycling of waste, water or material may lead to cost savings which in turn can increase the competitiveness of the firm and raise demand for a firm's products. Our econometric analysis uses data of two waves of the German part of the Community Innovation Survey (CIS). The performance effects of CE innovations measured by the financial standing of a firm and by turnover growth tend to be positive. The results of quantile regressions show that this is also the case for employment effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Horbach, Jens & Rammer, Christian, 2019. "Employment and performance effects of circular economy innovations," ZEW Discussion Papers 19-016, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:zewdip:19016
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/196125/1/1664582509.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christian Soltmann & Tobias Stucki & Martin Woerter, 2015. "The Impact of Environmentally Friendly Innovations on Value Added," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 62(3), pages 457-479, November.
    2. Harrison, Rupert & Jaumandreu, Jordi & Mairesse, Jacques & Peters, Bettina, 2014. "Does innovation stimulate employment? A firm-level analysis using comparable micro-data from four European countries," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 29-43.
    3. Sascha Rexhäuser & Christian Rammer, 2014. "Environmental Innovations and Firm Profitability: Unmasking the Porter Hypothesis," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 57(1), pages 145-167, January.
    4. Giovanni Marin & Francesca Lotti, 2017. "Productivity effects of eco-innovations using data on eco-patents," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 26(1), pages 125-148.
    5. Horbach Jens, 2010. "The Impact of Innovation Activities on Employment in the Environmental Sector – Empirical Results for Germany at the Firm Level," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 230(4), pages 403-419, August.
    6. Luisa Gagliardi & Giovanni Marin & Caterina Miriello, 2016. "The greener the better? Job creation effects of environmentally-friendly technological change," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 25(5), pages 779-807.
    7. Korhonen, Jouni & Honkasalo, Antero & Seppälä, Jyri, 2018. "Circular Economy: The Concept and its Limitations," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 37-46.
    8. Horváthová, Eva, 2010. "Does environmental performance affect financial performance? A meta-analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 52-59, November.
    9. Klaus Rennings & Thomas Zwick, 2002. "Employment Impact Of Cleaner Production On The Firm Level: Empirical Evidence From A Survey In Five European Countries," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 6(03), pages 319-342.
    10. Florian Flachenecker, 2018. "The causal impact of material productivity on macroeconomic competitiveness in the European Union," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 20(1), pages 17-46, January.
    11. Bersch, Johannes & Gottschalk, Sandra & Müller, Bettina & Niefert, Michaela, 2014. "The Mannheim Enterprise Panel (MUP) and firm statistics for Germany," ZEW Discussion Papers 14-104, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    12. de Jesus, Ana & Mendonça, Sandro, 2018. "Lost in Transition? Drivers and Barriers in the Eco-innovation Road to the Circular Economy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 75-89.
    13. Florian Flachenecker & Martin Kornejew, 2019. "The causal impact of material productivity on microeconomic competitiveness and environmental performance in the European Union," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 21(1), pages 87-122, January.
    14. Kunapatarawong, Rasi & Martínez-Ros, Ester, 2016. "Towards green growth: How does green innovation affect employment?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(6), pages 1218-1232.
    15. Dirk Czarnitzki & Kornelius Kraft, 2007. "Are credit ratings valuable information?," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(13), pages 1061-1070.
    16. Georg Licht & Bettina Peters, 2014. "Do Green Innovations Stimulate Employment? Firm-level Evidence From Germany. WWWforEurope Working Paper No. 53," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 47155, January.
    17. Friedhelm Pfeiffer & Klaus Rennings, 2001. "Employment impacts of cleaner production – evidence from a German study using case studies and surveys," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(3), pages 161-175, May.
    18. Horbach, Jens & Rammer, Christian, 2018. "Energy transition in Germany and regional spill-overs: The diffusion of renewable energy in firms," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 404-414.
    19. Burger, Martijn & Stavropoulos, Spyridon & Ramkumar, Shyaam & Dufourmont, Joke & van Oort, Frank, 2019. "The heterogeneous skill-base of circular economy employment," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 248-261.
    20. Luisa Gagliardi & Giovanni Marin & Caterina Miriello, 2014. "The Greener the Better: Job Creation and Environmentally- Friendly Technological Change," IEFE Working Papers 60, IEFE, Center for Research on Energy and Environmental Economics and Policy, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cainelli, Giulio & D’Amato, Alessio & Mazzanti, Massimiliano, 2020. "Resource efficient eco-innovations for a circular economy: Evidence from EU firms," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(1).

    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. Jens Horbach & Christian Rammer, 2020. "Circular economy innovations, growth and employment at the firm level: Empirical evidence from Germany," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 24(3), pages 615-625, June.
    2. Fernández, Sara & Torrecillas, Celia & Díaz, Guillermo Arenas, 2024. "Does eco-innovation stimulate employment? The case of Spanish manufacturing firms," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 571-585.
    3. Luigi Aldieri & Concetto Paolo Vinci, 2018. "Green Economy and Sustainable Development: The Economic Impact of Innovation on Employment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-11, October.
    4. Consoli, Davide & Marin, Giovanni & Marzucchi, Alberto & Vona, Francesco, 2016. "Do green jobs differ from non-green jobs in terms of skills and human capital?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(5), pages 1046-1060.
    5. Jens Horbach & Markus Janser, 2016. "The role of innovation and agglomeration for employment growth in the environmental sector," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(6), pages 488-511, August.
    6. Costantini, Valeria & Crespi, Francesco & Paglialunga, Elena, 2018. "The employment impact of private and public actions for energy efficiency: Evidence from European industries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 250-267.
    7. Antonioli, Davide & Ghisetti, Claudia & Mazzanti, Massimiliano & Nicolli, Francesco, 2022. "The economic returns of circular economy practices," FEEM Working Papers 319761, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    8. Christine Mee Lie, 2016. "Do ‘green’ employment effects vary across industries? Implications for green growth," Working Papers on Innovation Studies 20161014, Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture, University of Oslo.
    9. Janser, Markus, 2018. "The greening of jobs in Germany : First evidence from a text mining based index and employment register data," IAB-Discussion Paper 201814, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    10. Georg Licht & Bettina Peters & Christian Köhler & Franz Schwiebacher, 2014. "The Potential Contribution of Innovation Systems to Socio-Ecological Transition. WWWforEurope Deliverable No. 4," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 47502, January.
    11. Elliott, Robert J.R. & Kuai, Wenjing & Maddison, David & Ozgen, Ceren, 2024. "Eco-innovation and (green) employment: A task-based approach to measuring the composition of work in firms," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    12. Elliott, Robert J. R. & Kuai, Wenjing & Maddison, David & Ozgen, Ceren, 2021. "Eco-Innovation and Employment: A Task-Based Analysis," IZA Discussion Papers 14028, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Gupta, Ashish, 2024. "Impact of innovation on employment: A review of literature," MPRA Paper 120383, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Dechezleprêtre, Antoine & Kozluk, Tomasz & Kruse, Tobias & Nachtigall, Daniel & de Serres, Alain, 2019. "Do Environmental and Economic Performance Go Together? A Review of Micro-level Empirical Evidence from the Past Decade or So," International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, now publishers, vol. 13(1-2), pages 1-118, April.
    15. Luisa Gagliardi & Giovanni Marin & Caterina Miriello, 2014. "The Greener the Better: Job Creation and Environmentally- Friendly Technological Change," IEFE Working Papers 60, IEFE, Center for Research on Energy and Environmental Economics and Policy, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    16. Wei Shan & Jingyi Wang, 2019. "The Effect of Environmental Performance on Employment: Evidence from China’s Manufacturing Industries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(12), pages 1-18, June.
    17. Horbach, Jens, 2016. "The impact of resource efficiency measures on performance in small and medium-sized enterprises," Ruhr Economic Papers 643, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    18. Riccardo Leoncini & Alberto Marzucchi & Sandro Montresor & Francesco Rentocchini & Ugo Rizzo, 2019. "‘Better late than never’: the interplay between green technology and age for firm growth," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 52(4), pages 891-904, April.
    19. Luigi Aldieri & Maxim Kotsemir & Concetto Paolo Vinci, 2019. "The impact of environmental innovations on job-creation process: an empirical investigation for Russian regions," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 21(2), pages 285-306, April.
    20. Serenella Caravella & Francesco Crespi, 2022. "On the growth impact of different eco-innovation business strategies," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 39(2), pages 657-683, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    circular economy; Community Innovation Survey; eco-innovation; quantile regression;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C21 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models
    • Q01 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - General - - - Sustainable Development
    • Q55 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Technological Innovation

    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:zbw:zewdip:19016. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/zemande.html .

    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.