Research background: Circular economy is of great importance, as it plays a vital role in ensuring the reuse of waste created and, therefore, reduces the waste of limited resources, which is the primary goal of the general economic concept. In line with the circular economy, sustainable development gains great attention, as the United Nations announced the sustainable development goals that should be reached by 2030. Hence, the current paper aims at examining whether the circular economy could be treated as an effective assistance tool for sustainable development of OECD countries. Purpose of the article: The paper aims to investigate whether the circular economy could serve as an assistance tool for sustainable development and, therefore, seeks to determine if the circular economy could directly impact a country?s sustainable development. Methods: First, the countries chosen were prioritised using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the Evaluation Based on Distance from Average Solution (EDAS) methodologies. AHP method was used for weight assignment to the circular economy indicators that were further used for OECD countries? prioritisation procedure for which multi-criteria decision-making method EDAS was employed. Second, to reveal a link between the circular economy ranking results and sustainable development, a comparative analysis was done. Third, the impact of the country?s circular economy on sustainable development was evaluated using the fixed-effect regression model on four years of panel data from 2016 to 2019 for the sample of 32 OECD countries. Findings & value-added: The comparative analysis of the circular economy?s prioritisation results and Sustainable Development Goals Index (SDGI) ranking showed 20 out of 32 matches, assuming a link between the circular economy and sustainable development could be made. The fixed-effect regression equation results demonstrate that the unemployment rate, poverty rate, air pollution exposure, and CO2 emission per capita negatively influence sustainable development. In contrast, indicators such as gross domestic expenditure on R&D, renewable energy, number of passenger cars in use, and households with Internet access positively impact SDGI. The hypothesis that the circular economy is seen as an assistance for sustainable development and directly affects a country?s sustainability was approved. The paper contributes to the scientific literature in the field of circular economy and sustainable development interaction and could be seen as an assumption for new research directions, focusing on the linkage between circular economy and sustainable development. Moreover, the obtained results could contribute to a country?s policy-makers by highlighting the essential indicators of a circular economy that should be considered while forming the strategy of a country?s sustainable development.

The paper aims at measuring the efficiency of the digital economy in EU countries. For that purpose, data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used. Sub-dimensions of the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) are used as inputs and the Sustainable...

Sustainable economic development is driven by sustainable entrepreneurial activities, generated by the personal attitudes of entrepreneurs. The present and future of sustainable entrepreneurship are shaped by the youth, including students, which is why it is important to understand their attitudes towards this type of entrepreneurship. Therefore, the key goal of the research is to evaluate the attitudes and behaviours of the youth towards sustainability issues and sustainable entrepreneurship. The current article reflects the results of the second research stage and aims at evaluating attitudes towards sustainable entrepreneurship among Latvian and Lithuanian students. The results reveal that gender/age affect personal environmental attitudes, however gender/age has no effect on personal willingness to start a sustainable business. The analysis results of the personal attitudes to sustainable entrepreneurship differ by age and gender. Gender has no effect and age strongly affects personal attitudes to sustainable development.

Research purpose. The importance of sustainable development, the need to achieve sustainable economic development that does not harm the environment, conserve natural resources or exacerbate tensions in society has been increasingly discussed over the last decade. The purpose of the research is to evaluate the economic growth and decent work environment in G20 countries during 2013–2018 as G20 countries are the fastest growing countries in the world, and their economy describes the major part of the global economy. Design/Methodology/Approach. Qualitative data analysis based on the comparative analysis of scientific literature, content analysis, interpretation, comparison and grouping is used, in order to analyse the theoretical aspects of sustainable development and its goals, especially goal 8: decent work and economic growth. TOPSIS method helps to rank G20 countries according to the indicators of SDG 8. Findings. The results showed that Japan reached the best work environment and the most significant economic growth during 2013–2018. The United States is in second place and the third – the Republic of Korea. In the bottom three are Argentina, Brazil and South Africa. Originality/Value/Practical implications. Since it is challenging to identify the achievements of the economic and work environment development, as an essential part of sustainable development goals, the results could lead to future insights that will create value to policymakers, economists and other stakeholders.

The relevance of sustainable development in the financial institution and its value is significant in today’s financial landscape. This research aims to evaluate the efficiency of converting sustainable development outcomes, quantified through ESG, into a financial institution’s valuation, measured by the P/E ratio. In order to reach the aim, the DEA method was applied. The results reveal that only one financial institution has an efficiency score of 1, signifying a notable efficiency level. Most financial institutions in the dataset possess efficiency scores (represented by theta) below 0.1, indicating a relative inefficiency in converting their E, S, and G scores into P/E ratios. The results reveal that high E, S, and G scores do not result in higher P/E ratios. It might be advisable to diversify investments across different financial institutions with diverse ESG profiles to mitigate risk and optimise returns. These potential research perspectives offer opportunities for a more profound understanding of the connection between ESG factors and the valuation of financial institutions. They allow for an examination of the quality and transparency of ESG reporting, considering the specific internal factors relevant to international financial institutions, as ESG continues to gain recognition as an integral component of a company’s intangible assets.

All countries face several issues while running the process of sustainable development—the absence of a uniform means of sourcing investment for sustainable development and the lack of a unified index for the evaluation of sustainable development. No doubt, ensuring sustainable development requires constant financial investments. Hence, it is essential to examine the investment sources for sustainable development at the country level and to comprehend if the current financial investment has a direct impact on the results of a country’s sustainable development. The article aims at identifying the financing sources for sustainable development for each of the European Union (EU) countries and assessing their impact on each of the EU countries’ sustainable development, which is expressed as the Integrated Sustainable Development Index (ISDI). After the detailed analysis of investment sources for the sustainability of the EU countries, two sources of investment, assignation of budget and the EU structural funds, were selected, and ISDI calculation was applied for twenty-five of the EU member states for the period 2003–2017. Correlation analysis (using SPSS software) helped to identify the strength of the connection and to select countries for the Johansen Cointegration Test (using Eviews software) in order to determine how variables interact. The results show that the combination of the assignation of budget and the EU structural funds has a positive impact on the coherence of five (Czech Republic, Denmark, Spain, Slovenia, and Austria) out of twenty-four countries.