The Circular Economy: an Ancient Term that Became Polysemic

Isabel Mendes

No 2020/02, Working Papers Department of Economics from ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, Department of Economics, Universidade de Lisboa

Abstract: Today, Circular Economy (EC) is a popular concept in the business and financial world, among academics, politicians and decision-making bodies, and governmental and non-governmental institutions. Since 2003 has been intensely produced and published academic and non-academic literature. But despite this growing enthusiasm - and as far as we know so far - there are topics related to EC that remain under discussion, perhaps because they have not yet been the subject of sufficiently clarifying and multidisciplinary analysis. In this article, we intend to contribute to the clarification of some of these topics. The topics were chosen according to the questions that were installed in the author's mind of this article as she reviewed the literature on EC (the scientific areas in which the author is included are Environment and Natural Resources Economics and Ecological Economy). The topics under discussion are as follows: 1) Neoclassical economists also use the EC concept; will this be equal to the current concept of EC? 2) Some authors have argued that EC is an entirely new concept; however, the circular functioning of the economy was already described by economists in the 18th century. In the end, we want to demonstrate: 1) That EC is a polysemic term; that is, although the EC of neoclassical economists is different from the current EC, both share a common root: circularity; 2) The term EC is not new because its genesis lies in the 18th century; 3) the current concept of EC is also not new, because it has been described since the 1960s; 4) What is truly new in today's EC is the recognition and internalization of its principles by the business and governmental worlds. To achieve our objective, we were based on the critical analysis of the literature, supported by the theoretical body of conventional neoclassical economics (micro and macro); Ecological and Environmental Economy; and the History of Economic Thought.

Keywords: circular economy; circular model of monetary flows; circular throughput model; linear throughput model. JEL Classification: A13, O11, O13, O41, O44, Q01, Q50, Q57. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env, nep-his, nep-hme, nep-hpe and nep-pke
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