Sustainable economic growth is desired to be achieved by governments targeting economic, social, and environmental benefits. The idea of circular economy model is to consider feedback effects from proper waste management instead of one-way effects typical with the classical linear model. Several sectors of society contribute to circular economy and its monetary and environmental outputs in a sustainable way. The aim of this paper is to analyze the dependencies and causalities of circular economy and economic developments in the EU. The research objectives include testing (i) whether research and development (R&D) expenditure, GDP per capita and generation of municipal waste per capita influence the recycling rate of municipal waste, and (ii) whether R&D expenditure, generation of municipal waste per capita and the recycling rate of municipal waste influence the GDP per capita. The relevant indicators are obtained from Eurostat. The research methods of fixed effects and Tobit approach are used to study the statistical relevance of the two models. The pairwise causality of variables is tested by Dumitrescu–Hurlin causality test. One result of the study is that technology development, by a decreasing life of products, leads to an increase of waste generation. Therefore, environmentally friendly technologies should be produced.

This study investigates the effects of productivity, energy consumption, foreign direct investments, and urbanization on carbon dioxide emissions (CO₂) in Finland during 2000–2020 using an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model. The results show that (i) there is evidence of cointegration among variables; (ii) energy consumption has a positive effect on CO₂ emissions in the long run; (iii) labor productivity and urbanization have a negative effect on CO₂ emissions in the long run; (iv) foreign direct investments are not a significant explainer of CO₂ emissions. The results are discussed with some policy implications and suggested future research.

Achieving a competitive economy and a competitive market generally proceeds from the desire to meet economic and social objectives and it ensures a growing level of social welfare. The objectives of our research are to determine and highlight the bidirectional linear correlations among competitiveness, well-being and innovation and to analyze the main factors that influence these relations. Our research includes the EU member states and the UK using these countries’ specific indicators from the databases of EUROSTAT, the World Economic Forum and the United Nations from 2016-2018. We used Canonical Correlation Analysis to determine a set of canonical variates which represent linear combinations of the variables from each set. The contributions of our research show a direct and strong link among the three pillars of competitiveness, innovation and well-being. This analysis allowed us to identify and analyze the influence of innovation on the economic development and competitiveness of each EU country and on the well-being of its population. Governments and organizations that invest more in research in terms of innovation to increase the competitiveness of their products and services have shown a growing GDP and a higher level of population well-being. This research is representative at the European level and may influence the decisions of national governments and other institutions to encourage innovation through drivers such as R&D expenditures and human resources as the main factors generating economic growth and competitiveness, thus with a direct effect on GDP and on well-being.

This study explores the dynamic relationship between economic growth, technological innovation, and $C{O}_2$ emissions in BRICS nations, integrating the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) and Innovation Claudia Curve (ICC) frameworks. Using a panel ARDL approach on data from 1991 to 2023, we investigate the long-run and short-run interactions between GDP, renewable energy consumption (RENC), foreign direct investment (FDI), urbanization (URB), and patent applications (PAs) in shaping environmental outcomes. The findings confirm the EKC hypothesis, revealing an N-shaped relationship between GDP and emissions, indicating that while economic growth initially leads to higher $C{O}_2$ emissions, this trend reverses at a critical threshold before a secondary increase occurs at higher income levels. The ICC framework identifies a cubic relationship between innovation and emissions, where technological advancements initially drive higher emissions before contributing to sustainability at later stages, though an excessive scale of innovation may reintroduce environmental pressures. RENC is found to significantly mitigate emissions, while URB and FDI display dual and context-dependent effects, highlighting the multidimensionality of sustainable transitions in emerging economies. These results underscore the importance of targeted policy interventions, such as scaling renewable energy infrastructure, promoting green innovation, guiding urban expansion, and aligning FDI with environmental objectives.