Sustainable Development through Eco-Innovation at the EU 27 Level

Abstract

Eco-innovation is a significant tool that combines low environmental impact with positive socio-economic impact, and an essential element of the European Union's strategies and policies to boost competitiveness, create jobs and generate sustainable economic growth. The aim of our research is to highlight the role of eco-innovation and to investigate the impact of GDP growth, resource productivity and the increase of recycling rate of municipal waste on the eco-innovation index in the 27 Member States of the European Union. The study is based on a set of regression analyses that use panel data estimation models, a GMM estimator with robust standard errors. The results of our analysis reflect that the GDP, resource productivity and recycling rate of municipal waste had a statistically significant and positive effect on eco-innovation.

Keywords

• eco-innovation
• sustainable development
• regression analyses
• european union