Economic Growth and Circular Economy: A Statistical Approach to Resource Management

The circular economy has become an fundamental framework to achieve sustainable economic growth by decreasing dependence on limited natural resources and by mitigating environmental effects. This study examines the association between circular economy metrics, as defined by the National Institute of Statistics and Romania’s economic performance, specifically regarding Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Starting from a top-down analysis, we have initially examined which variables have a significant relationship with GDP and afterwards what other factors influencing these variables. The results indicate a robust positive association between GDP and the growth of environmental technology as well as renewable energy. This outcome underscores how important sustainability-oriented economic initiatives are. Nevertheless, higher GDP is also associated with increased material consumption, which highlights the difficulties of reconciling economic expansion with resource efficiency. The second step was to determine which factors influence these variables. The findings indicate that higher gross value added in environmental technology could be achieved by increasing the amount of raw materials imported, of recyclable materials import and of raw materials export. When it comes to the share of renewable energy, it has been established that the most is used for electricity and the least for transportation. In term of material footprint, with found a negative significant correlation with material and natural resource productivity, as well as with green sector employment and with share of renewable electric heating and cooling. On contrary, material footprint has a positive relation with share of renewable energy use transport and share of renewable electric energy. The fourth examined variable is domestic material consumption, which decreases with higher amount of green sector employment, higher natural and material resource productivity, lower material intensity as well as lower material footprint. All our findings indicate that the transition to sustainability would require policy-driven investments, infrastructural improvements and behavioral changes.