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About

My research project

Publications

G. Foster, M. Calisto Friant, B. Leiputė, T. King, T. B. Fischer, S. Gaušas, E. Langham, A. Švedkauskienė, R. Marschinski (2026)A global typology for assessing socioeconomic impacts of the circular economy, In: Communications Sustainability1(1)55 Nature Publishing Group UK

Governments worldwide have embraced the circular economy and are translating it into policies, environmental laws, and regulations. However, the socioeconomic impacts of these policies are less understood due to a lack of systematic assessment. Here, we conduct a systematic review and analysis of 128 studies to develop a typology that identifies the most likely positive and negative socioeconomic impacts of different types of CE policies. The typology guides the development of more effective and balanced policies. We identified 12 key areas of impact and further divided them into 44 sub-topics. These areas cover how the circular economy affects industries, regions, and products, as well as describe effects on workers, employees, and communities. Most circular economy policies aim to transform waste into usable resources. The literature is practice-based, dominated by regulations and reporting, and financial incentives. Consumer products and plastics are in the spotlight. Employment is the most studied socioeconomic impact. Overall, the proposed typology can be used for any country, region or city to help policymakers and researchers better understand the socioeconomic impacts of circular economy policies. Circular economy policies influence products, industries, and regions, and the proposed classification framework helps assess their impacts and guides policymakers to make informed decisions and achieve sustainable socioeconomic outcomes, according to a meta-analysis of 128 studies.

Socioeconomic impacts of Circular Economy (CE) policies, particularly those that are not easily quantifiable, are frequently overlooked. To address this shortcoming, a comprehensive Typology of Socioeconomic Impacts is developed in this work, which encompasses a wide range of identified impacts as well as providing insights into policy objectives, measures, economic sectors and products. The aim of this study is to offer lessons learned and recommendations to improve CE policymaking in the EU by making the scope and depth of socioeconomic impact assessments more comprehensive. It provides good practice examples from the literature analysed, EU impact assessments and evaluations as well as from international organisations, national and local governments and civil society.