Understanding how production systems can transition towards sustainability without weakening structural performance is a key challenge in contemporary economics. The ecological transition is not only a technological or environmental issue, but a multidimensional process shaped by firms’ behaviour, market incentives, institutions, and territorial constraints. Existing studies remain fragmented and lack an integrated framework linking micro-level decisions, structural change, and territorial differences in environmental performance.
This project develops a micro-founded and empirically testable framework to analyse the mechanisms driving the ecological transition of European production systems. Its objective is to identify and quantify how structural change, territorial capabilities, environmental productivity, and carbon pricing instruments jointly influence firms’ behaviour and production dynamics.
The approach combines micro-founded modelling, advanced econometric, optimisation and spatial analysis techniques, and modern data processing tools applied to harmonised European and national datasets at the NUTS 1, NUTS 2, and NUTS 3 levels.
The framework is articulated along four dimensions: (i) structural change, distinguishing sectoral reallocation from reductions in environmental intensity; (ii) territorial and corporate capacity to adopt circular economy practices under economic, institutional, and infrastructural constraints, with attention to waste management and material recovery supply chains, measured through innovative non parametric models and adaptive signal processing methods; (iii) dynamic environmental productivity, accounting for undesirable outputs and reductions in resource use and environmental pressures; and (iv) the role of carbon pricing incentives - particularly the EU ETS and Border Carbon Adjustment mechanisms - in shaping firms’ technological choices, green innovation strategies and financial resilience.
The project’s originality lies in providing a unified economic framework linking micro-level optimisation, institutional, territorial and corporate conditions, and environmental outcomes, enabling the identification of causal mechanisms and distinction between emission reductions driven by technological innovation, sectoral reallocation, and policy incentives.
Expected results include replicable indicators of environmental structural transformation and territorial circularity, causal estimates of carbon pricing effects on technological choices and productivity dynamics, comparable performance measures across firms, sectors and regions, and counterfactual policy scenarios supporting effective environmental and industrial strategies.
By delivering robust and verifiable evidence through clearly defined indicators and empirically grounded methodologies, the project supports the design of efficient, evidence based policies aligned with sustainability, competitiveness, and territorial cohesion in the European Union.
This project develops a micro-founded and empirically testable framework to analyse the mechanisms driving the ecological transition of European production systems. Its objective is to identify and quantify how structural change, territorial capabilities, environmental productivity, and carbon pricing instruments jointly influence firms’ behaviour and production dynamics.
The approach combines micro-founded modelling, advanced econometric, optimisation and spatial analysis techniques, and modern data processing tools applied to harmonised European and national datasets at the NUTS 1, NUTS 2, and NUTS 3 levels.
The framework is articulated along four dimensions: (i) structural change, distinguishing sectoral reallocation from reductions in environmental intensity; (ii) territorial and corporate capacity to adopt circular economy practices under economic, institutional, and infrastructural constraints, with attention to waste management and material recovery supply chains, measured through innovative non parametric models and adaptive signal processing methods; (iii) dynamic environmental productivity, accounting for undesirable outputs and reductions in resource use and environmental pressures; and (iv) the role of carbon pricing incentives - particularly the EU ETS and Border Carbon Adjustment mechanisms - in shaping firms’ technological choices, green innovation strategies and financial resilience.
The project’s originality lies in providing a unified economic framework linking micro-level optimisation, institutional, territorial and corporate conditions, and environmental outcomes, enabling the identification of causal mechanisms and distinction between emission reductions driven by technological innovation, sectoral reallocation, and policy incentives.
Expected results include replicable indicators of environmental structural transformation and territorial circularity, causal estimates of carbon pricing effects on technological choices and productivity dynamics, comparable performance measures across firms, sectors and regions, and counterfactual policy scenarios supporting effective environmental and industrial strategies.
By delivering robust and verifiable evidence through clearly defined indicators and empirically grounded methodologies, the project supports the design of efficient, evidence based policies aligned with sustainability, competitiveness, and territorial cohesion in the European Union.