A circular economy model of economic growth

Brian Chi-ang Lin, Y. Chen, Donald George

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract / Description of output

The main purpose of this paper is to present a theoretical model incorporating the concept of circular economic activities. We construct a circular economy model with two types of economic resources, namely, a polluting input and a recyclable input. Overall, our results indicate that the factors affecting economic growth include the marginal product of the recyclable input, the recycling ratio, the cost of using the environmentally polluting input and the level of pollution arising from the employment of the polluting input. Our analysis also shows that, contrary to the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC), environmental quality cannot be maintained or improved via economic growth. Instead, the improvement in environmental quality, as measured by a reduction in pollution, can only be achieved by an increase in the environmental self-renewal rate or the recycling ratio.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)60-63
JournalEnvironmental Modelling and Software
Volume73
Issue numberNov 2015
Early online date22 Aug 2015
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2015

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • circular economy
  • economic growth
  • sustainability
  • environmental Kuznets curve
  • self-renewal rate
  • recycling ratio

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