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Comparison of the impact of ecoinnovations and resource productivity in Croatia and Southeast European countries

Eco-innovations are the pillar of today’s circular economy. This paper depicts several relationships related to eco-innovations in the circular economy of (a) Croatia, (b) compares them to the other Southeast European countries and (c) to the European Union 28-member states’ average (EU-28 from 2013). Examined linkages include: (1) eco- innovations and resource productivity, and (2) eco-innovations and value added at factor costs. Ten-year average is used to calculate eco- innovations as the input variable, while the depicted output variables are determined after that period. The study used panel regression analysis with five observations (N) along 11 time periods (2000-2020). Data were extracted from the Eurostat database and transformed in log form to avoid problems of heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation, while the analysis was done in the statistical software package STATA. Four individual country observations were inspected: Bulgarian, Croatian, Romanian, and Slovenian, while the fifth observation was the EU-28 average. The results point out that eco-innovations statistically significantly and negatively affect resource productivity, and eco-innovations do not exhibit statistically significant influence on value added at factor costs. In more detail, eco innovations, i.e., the 10-year patenting average, do not exhibit statistically significant effect on neither resource productivity in: (1) Croatia, (2) have statistically significant negative effect in Slovenia, (3) and positive effect in the EU-28 average sample. In terms of the effect of eco innovations in terms of the 10-year patenting average on value added at factor costs: (1) no statically significant influence was found in Croatia, (2) positive effect was found in Slovenia. The contribution of this paper is twofold. Firstly, it provides a review of the literature on circular economy stressing its role for and in Croatia as a Southeast European country and the European Union member state. Secondly, it offers a descriptive and empirical approach to measuring eco-innovation related to resource productivity and value added in a comparative perspective with other Southeast European economies and the European Union’s 28 member states’ average.

circular economy ; resource productivity ; eco-innovations ; value added at factor costs ; Southeast Europe

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