Environmental Performance in EU Countries from the Perspective of Its Relation to Human and Economic Wellbeing

Simona-Roxana Ulman, Costica Mihai, Cristina Cautisanu, Ioan Bruma, Oana Coca and Gavril Stefan
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Simona-Roxana Ulman: CERNESIM Environmental Research Center, Institute of Interdisciplinary Research, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iasi, 700505 Iasi, Romania
Costica Mihai: Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, 700505 Iasi, Romania
Cristina Cautisanu: CERNESIM Environmental Research Center, Institute of Interdisciplinary Research, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iasi, 700505 Iasi, Romania
Oana Coca: Faculty of Agriculture, “Ion Ionescu de la Brad” Iasi University of Life Sciences, 700490 Iasi, Romania
Gavril Stefan: Faculty of Agriculture, “Ion Ionescu de la Brad” Iasi University of Life Sciences, 700490 Iasi, Romania

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 23, 1-26

Abstract: The actual development challenges impose new criteria of national performance evaluation, the concept of wellbeing tending to be measured not just in terms of economic and social dimensions, but also vs. the environment. Accordingly, considering the national environmental performance among the EU countries in 2006–2019 period, we grouped them and concentrated on the clusters registering the highest and lowest levels, analyzing how the components of the human and economic dimensions influence it. Applying panel data models, our main results emphasized that, firstly, for the countries with a better environmental performance, sufficient drinking water, safe sanitation, education, gender equality, and good governance were significant; in the countries with the lowest levels of environmental wellbeing, sufficient food, sufficient to drink, education, and income distribution were insignificant, while the remaining components were relevant. Secondly, in both groups of countries, organic farming and public debt were significant; nevertheless, differences were observed for genuine savings and employment, for which the peculiarities of economic activities seemed to be materialized as different influences upon environmental wellbeing. Our study draws alarm signals regarding the development patterns applied in the EU, seeming to have results that strengthen the sustainable goals, but not sufficient for exceeding the traditional growth-oriented model.

Keywords: environmental performance; human and economic wellbeing; EU member states; cluster; panel data models (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (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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