The geography of circular economy technologies in Europe: evolutionary patterns and technological convergence

Abstract

This chapter investigates the evolutionary patterns of Circular Economy (CE) technologies in European regions, over the period 1980-2015. We identify a core of CE technologies by using the official list of technological classes (CPC) and patent data from the OECD RegPat database. We carry out a detailed and comprehensive analysis of CE technological trajectories and specialization, through their geographic distribution and evolution over time. Our findings suggest that the CE knowledge space is a rapidly developing and dynamic technological field. Furthermore, the analysis shows that regional CE innovative efforts are quite heterogeneous, regions tend to specialize in the generation of different kinds of CE technologies and these technologies take different evolutionary patterns.

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