Exploring the patterns of Eco-Innovation index and Competitiveness index in Europe

In this technical report the interest is placed on two multi-faceted indices, the Eco-innovation index and the Global Competitiveness Index of the EU 28 member states. The former index is produced by the Eco-innovation Observatory under the DG Environment of the European Commission covering the period 2010-2018 while the latter is produced by the World Economic Forum and the period of interest is 2006-2017. Thus, we devise two unique panel datasets to explore the patterns of those indices in Europe. Findings indicate that Europe is characterized by technological and institutional heterogeneity despite the fact that countries are subject to the same policy directives. Results indicate that a pattern arises indeed. Specifically, south European countries outperform in almost every aspect of the indices examined while countries of the south and east of Europe appear to have the lowest performance on average. Findings indicate that in order to achieve higher performance a tailor made policy oriented to specific group of countries appears to be a plausible strategy in contrast to a one-size-fits-all policy.