The skill requirements of the circular economy

Duygu Buyukyazici and Francesco Quatraro

Ecological Economics, 2025, vol. 232, issue C

Abstract: In response to global challenges related to resource scarcity and environmental concerns, the circular economy (CE) has emerged as a transformative model focused on resource efficiency and waste reduction. As the discourse around the CE intensifies, understanding the skill requirements of the CE becomes imperative for effective policy-making, workforce development, and regional competitiveness. This paper addresses the scarcity of quantitative methods on this aspect and proposes a conceptual and empirical framework to identify, analyse, and monitor the skill requirements of the CE through a comprehensive and reproducible approach based on relative skill advantage, skill relatedness, and skill complexity measures. Accordingly, it identifies the essential and complementary skills within the CE by constructing unique skill spaces and documents their regional variation.

Keywords: Circular economy; Skills; Competencies; Relatedness; Complexity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E24 J24 O33 Q01 Q50 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Working Paper: The Skill Requirements of the Circular Economy (2024)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:232:y:2025:i:c:s0921800925000424

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2025.108559

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