Efficiency of Environmental Protection Expenditures in EU Countries

Alan Barrell, Pawel Dobrzanski, Sebastian Bobowski, Krzysztof Siuda and Szymon Chmielowiec
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Alan Barrell: Cambridge Worldwide Associates, Cambridge CB2 8PW, UK
Sebastian Bobowski: Department of International Economic Relations, Wroclaw University of Economics and Business, 53-345 Wroclaw, Poland
Krzysztof Siuda: Department of Mathematical Economics, Wroclaw University of Economics and Business, 53-345 Wroclaw, Poland
Szymon Chmielowiec: The Cambridge Learning Gateway, St. John’s Innovation Centre, Cambridge CB4 0WS, UK

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 24, 1-35

Abstract: Environmental protection policy is a widely discussed issue in scientific works. However, special attention should be also paid to the effectiveness of expenditures on environmental protection, and this is the main goal of this paper. The countries of the European Union were selected for this analysis due to the fact that, in recent years, this region has become an informal world leader with respect to the implementation of policy measures in the field of environmental protection. For that reason, the data envelopment analysis methodology was used, which allows the calculation of input-output efficiency for the years 2005–2015. The analysis shows that, among the 30 analyzed countries, the most effective in environmental protection actions is Finland. The hypothesis that higher environmental protection expenditures does not result in better environmental results has been confirmed. Our analysis confirmed the problem of the deteriorating efficiency of environmental expenditures across the selected European Union Member States, caused by increases in spending. This research may contribute to the discussion on environmental protection policy design and its assessment, as well as environmental policy results measurement.

Keywords: environmental protection expenditures; DEA methodology; relative efficiency; EU environmental policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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