Sustainability, Vol. 11, Pages 5125: Entrepreneurial Innovation Impact on Recycling Municipal Waste. A Panel Data Analysis at the EU Level (Sustainability)

Based on recent findings of the economic literature on the implications of entrepreneurial innovation for recycling municipal waste, this paper aims to examine the main factors of recycling municipal waste at the European Union (EU) level. In this study, the authors developed a linear regression model to analyze the relationship between business expenditure on research and development (R&D), private investments, gross domestic product (GDP) expenditures on R&D, resource productivity, and environmental taxes on the recycling rate of municipal waste (RRMW). In our analyses, we used data from the Statistical Office of the European Union (EUROSTAT) and five statistical hypotheses were validated through a multiple regression model with panel data using the statistical software EViews 11. The study was conducted in 27 European Union countries between 2010 and 2017. Our results indicate that business expenditure on R&D, private investments, GDP expenditures on R&D, and resource productivity have a direct and significant impact on the RRMW, while environmental taxes have a significant and inverse impact on the RRMW. These findings underline that public policies should be focused on increasing the use of private and public investments on R&D for recycling municipal waste.