Circular economy convergence across European Union: Evidence on the role policy diffusion and domestic mechanisms

Promoting transition towards new business modes has become a cornerstone of contemporary policymaking. The circular economy approach has provided a novel and interesting paradigm for businesses and decision-makers aiming to boost the sustainability of production and consumption processes. The European Union (EU) has provided a wide legislative framework to guide Member States towards implementing a common set of circular economy (CE) measures and achieving harmonised progress. However, several differences exist among national norms and rules, risking reducing the effective and homogeneous achievement of EU-wide common goals. Based on these premises, following an assessment of convergence processes among Member States, the present research aims to identify factors affecting this process. More in detail, we distinguish between two mechanisms, i.e., convergence driven by international factors or, rather, a consequence of each Member State’s decision-making. To do so, we applied a dyadic rare event logit model to a set of 27 EU Member States between 2008 and 2020. Our results show that both channels are in force within the EU when the economic and political consequences of CE policies are considered. Differently, the convergence process is fostered by the identification of “stories of success”, meant as good performance of CE-specific policies implemented in other countries.