IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecanpo/v77y2023icp764-779.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

New circular economy perspectives on measuring sustainable waste management productivity

Author

Listed:
  • Halkos, George E.
  • Aslanidis, Panagiotis Stavros C.

Abstract

The aim of this study is to delve into the interrelations between sustainability and the circular economy (CE) as it relates to the development of sustainable waste management (SWM). Innovative environmental policy pathways towards the CE are discussed as are the novel Environment Action Programme (EAP) and the new circular economy action plan which are intrinsic parts of the European Green Deal (EGD). Panel data analysis using the Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) and the Malmquist–Luenberger productivity index (MLPI) is employed to evaluate the growth in total factor productivity in the European Union. The study incorporates as inputs: energy use, labour force, and gross fixed capital formation. Desirable output is described in terms of gross domestic product, and undesirable output – municipal waste generation – is examined using the MLPI model. The studied period is 1995–2019 and involves comparison between three periods: 1998–1999, 2008–2009, and 2018–2019. It is these periods in which TFP has been increasing in Europe in an era with active institutional actions on the environment. The average productivity growth based on MPI and MLPI is found to be 3.28%, and 0.1% respectively. However, we find that the incorporation of municipal waste generation – as an undesirable output – constitutes a significant factor in the lessening of TFP. This analysis provides a useful input for EU stakeholders involved in municipal solid waste management by highlighting methods of effectively waste generation and thus expanding the elements of the CE framework which will be reviewed in the upcoming Agenda 2030 and Agenda 2050 meetings.

Suggested Citation

  • Halkos, George E. & Aslanidis, Panagiotis Stavros C., 2023. "New circular economy perspectives on measuring sustainable waste management productivity," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 764-779.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecanpo:v:77:y:2023:i:c:p:764-779
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eap.2023.01.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0313592623000012
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.eap.2023.01.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

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

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fare, Rolf & Grosskopf, Shawna, 1996. "Productivity and intermediate products: A frontier approach," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 65-70, January.
    2. Amir Moradi-Motlagh & Ali Emrouznejad, 2022. "The origins and development of statistical approaches in non-parametric frontier models: a survey of the first two decades of scholarly literature (1998–2020)," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 318(1), pages 713-741, November.
    3. Walter R. Stahel, 2016. "The circular economy," Nature, Nature, vol. 531(7595), pages 435-438, March.
    4. Malinauskaite, J. & Jouhara, H. & Czajczyńska, D. & Stanchev, P. & Katsou, E. & Rostkowski, P. & Thorne, R.J. & Colón, J. & Ponsá, S. & Al-Mansour, F. & Anguilano, L. & Krzyżyńska, R. & López, I.C. & , 2017. "Municipal solid waste management and waste-to-energy in the context of a circular economy and energy recycling in Europe," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 2013-2044.
    5. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1978. "Measuring the efficiency of decision making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 2(6), pages 429-444, November.
    6. Halkos, George & Petrou, Kleoniki Natalia, 2019. "Treating undesirable outputs in DEA: A critical review," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 97-104.
    7. Simar, Leopold & Wilson, Paul W., 1999. "Estimating and bootstrapping Malmquist indices," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 115(3), pages 459-471, June.
    8. Léopold Simar & Paul W. Wilson, 1998. "Sensitivity Analysis of Efficiency Scores: How to Bootstrap in Nonparametric Frontier Models," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(1), pages 49-61, January.
    9. George Halkos & George Papageorgiou, 2016. "Spatial environmental efficiency indicators in regional waste generation: a nonparametric approach," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 59(1), pages 62-78, January.
    10. Caves, Douglas W & Christensen, Laurits R & Diewert, W Erwin, 1982. "The Economic Theory of Index Numbers and the Measurement of Input, Output, and Productivity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(6), pages 1393-1414, November.
    11. Christina Bampatsou & George Halkos, 2021. "Non-Parametric Computational Measures for the Analysis of Resource Productivity," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-14, May.
    12. Agostino, M. & Nifo, A. & Ruberto, S. & Scalera, D. & Trivieri, F., 2022. "Productivity changes in the automotive industry of three European countries. An application of the Malmquist index decomposition analysis," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 216-226.
    13. Byung M. Jeon & Robin C. Sickles, 2004. "The role of environmental factors in growth accounting," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(5), pages 567-591.
    14. Rogge, Nicky & de Jaeger, Simon, 2012. "Evaluating the efficiency of municipalities in collecting and processing municipal solid waste: A shared input DEA-model," Working Papers 2012/22, Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel, Faculteit Economie en Management.
    15. Jean‐Philippe Boussemart & Walter Briec & Kristiaan Kerstens & Jean‐Christophe Poutineau, 2003. "Luenberger and Malmquist Productivity Indices: Theoretical Comparisons and Empirical Illustration," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(4), pages 391-405, October.
    16. George E. Halkos & Nickolaos G. Tzeremes, 2015. "Measuring Seaports' Productivity: A Malmquist Productivity Index Decomposition Approach," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 49(2), pages 355-376, April.
    17. R. G. Chambers & Y. Chung & R. Färe, 1998. "Profit, Directional Distance Functions, and Nerlovian Efficiency," Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, Springer, vol. 98(2), pages 351-364, August.
    18. Chambers, Robert G. & Fare, Rolf & Grosskopf, Shawna, 1996. "Productivity Growth in APEC Countries," Working Papers 197843, University of Maryland, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    19. Caves, Douglas W & Christensen, Laurits R & Diewert, W Erwin, 1982. "Multilateral Comparisons of Output, Input, and Productivity Using Superlative Index Numbers," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 92(365), pages 73-86, March.
    20. Alan Murray & Keith Skene & Kathryn Haynes, 2017. "The Circular Economy: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of the Concept and Application in a Global Context," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 140(3), pages 369-380, February.
    21. Winans, K. & Kendall, A. & Deng, H., 2017. "The history and current applications of the circular economy concept," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 68(P1), pages 825-833.
    22. Bampatsou, Christina & Halkos, George & Beneki, Christina, 2021. "Energy and material flow management to improve EU productivity," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 83-93.
    23. R. D. Banker & A. Charnes & W. W. Cooper, 1984. "Some Models for Estimating Technical and Scale Inefficiencies in Data Envelopment Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(9), pages 1078-1092, September.
    24. Daoping Wang & Kerui Du & Ning Zhang, 2022. "Measuring technical efficiency and total factor productivity change with undesirable outputs in Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 22(1), pages 103-124, March.
    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. Halkos, George & Aslanidis, Panagiotis-Stavros, 2024. "Reviewing environmental aspects under the scope of ESG," MPRA Paper 120298, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Weronika Urbańska & Anna Janda & Magdalena Osial & Mateusz Słowikowski, 2023. "Sustainable Municipal Waste Management during the COVID-19 Pandemic—A Case Study of Poland," Resources, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-16, June.
    3. Halkos, George E. & Aslanidis, Panagiotis – Stavros C., 2023. "Sustainable energy development in an era of geopolitical multi-crisis. Applying productivity indices within institutional framework," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(PB).

    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. Halkos, George E. & Aslanidis, Panagiotis – Stavros C., 2023. "Sustainable energy development in an era of geopolitical multi-crisis. Applying productivity indices within institutional framework," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(PB).
    2. Nakano, Makiko & Managi, Shunsuke, 2008. "Regulatory reforms and productivity: An empirical analysis of the Japanese electricity industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 201-209, January.
    3. Cuadrado-Ballesteros, Beatriz & García-Sánchez, Isabel-María & Prado-Lorenzo, José-Manuel, 2013. "Effect of modes of public services delivery on the efficiency of local governments: A two-stage approach," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 23-35.
    4. Michali, Maria & Emrouznejad, Ali & Dehnokhalaji, Akram & Clegg, Ben, 2023. "Subsampling bootstrap in network DEA," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 305(2), pages 766-780.
    5. Pontus Mattsson & Jonas Månsson & Christian Andersson & Fredrik Bonander, 2018. "A bootstrapped Malmquist index applied to Swedish district courts," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 46(1), pages 109-139, August.
    6. Managi, Shunsuke & Jena, Pradyot Ranjan, 2008. "Environmental productivity and Kuznets curve in India," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 432-440, April.
    7. Isabel-María García-Sánchez & Luis Rodríguez-Domínguez & Javier Parra-Domínguez, 2013. "Yearly evolution of police efficiency in Spain and explanatory factors," Central European Journal of Operations Research, Springer;Slovak Society for Operations Research;Hungarian Operational Research Society;Czech Society for Operations Research;Österr. Gesellschaft für Operations Research (ÖGOR);Slovenian Society Informatika - Section for Operational Research;Croatian Operational Research Society, vol. 21(1), pages 31-62, January.
    8. Pastor, Jesus T. & Lovell, C.A. Knox & Aparicio, Juan, 2020. "Defining a new graph inefficiency measure for the proportional directional distance function and introducing a new Malmquist productivity index," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 281(1), pages 222-230.
    9. Walter Briec & Laurence Lasselle, 2022. "On some relations between a continuous time Luenberger productivity indicator and the Solow model," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(2), pages 484-502, April.
    10. Neves Bezerra de Melo, Felipe Luiz & Sampaio, Raquel Menezes Bezerra & Sampaio, Luciano Menezes Bezerra, 2018. "Efficiency, productivity gains, and the size of Brazilian supermarkets," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 99-111.
    11. Cristian Barra & Roberto Zotti, 2016. "Measuring Efficiency in Higher Education: An Empirical Study Using a Bootstrapped Data Envelopment Analysis," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 22(1), pages 11-33, February.
    12. Halsteinli, Vidar & Kittelsen, Sverre A. & Magnussen, Jon, 2010. "Productivity growth in outpatient child and adolescent mental health services: The impact of case-mix adjustment," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(3), pages 439-446, February.
    13. Aparicio, Juan & Ortiz, Lidia & Santín, Daniel, 2021. "Comparing group performance over time through the Luenberger productivity indicator: An application to school ownership in European countries," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 294(2), pages 651-672.
    14. Tae Hoon Oum & Katsuhiro Yamaguchi & Yuichiro Yoshida, 2011. "Efficiency Measurement Theory and its Application to Airport Benchmarking," Chapters, in: André de Palma & Robin Lindsey & Emile Quinet & Roger Vickerman (ed.), A Handbook of Transport Economics, chapter 13, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    15. Léopold Simar & Paul W. Wilson, 2015. "Statistical Approaches for Non-parametric Frontier Models: A Guided Tour," International Statistical Review, International Statistical Institute, vol. 83(1), pages 77-110, April.
    16. Andrés J. Picazo-Tadeo & Juana Castillo & Mercedes Beltrán-Esteve, 2013. "A dynamic approach to measuring ecological-economic performance with directional distance functions: greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union," Working Papers 1304, Department of Applied Economics II, Universidad de Valencia.
    17. Sebastian Kohl & Jan Schoenfelder & Andreas Fügener & Jens O. Brunner, 2019. "The use of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) in healthcare with a focus on hospitals," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 245-286, June.
    18. Valentin Zelenyuk, 2023. "Productivity analysis: roots, foundations, trends and perspectives," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 60(3), pages 229-247, December.
    19. Léopold Simar & Paul W. Wilson, 2023. "Another look at productivity growth in industrialized countries," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 60(3), pages 257-272, December.
    20. Valentin Zelenyuk, 2019. "Data Envelopment Analysis and Business Analytics: The Big Data Challenges and Some Solutions," CEPA Working Papers Series WP072019, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Sustainable waste management; Circular economy; Sustainability; Municipal waste generation; Data envelopment analysis; Malmquist productivity index; Malmquist–Luenberger productivity index;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q01 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - General - - - Sustainable Development
    • Q53 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling
    • Q56 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth

    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:eee:ecanpo:v:77:y:2023:i:c:p:764-779. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/economic-analysis-and-policy .

    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.