Constructing an open access economy-wide database for bioeconomy impact assessment in the European Union member states

Abstract

The bioeconomy encompasses the extraction, processing and transformation of renewable biological resources and waste streams, connected to activities as diverse as food, feed, energy and manufacturing. Under the auspices of the European Union's 'Green Deal' strategy, this broad collective of sectors is promoted as a cornerstone for achieving sustainable growth. Progress in developing ex-ante tools of economy-wide modelling analysis to assess its performance is, however, hindered by a paucity of consistent and comprehensive data. To overcome this shortcoming, the construction steps for a new set of open access social accounting matrices (dubbed 'BioSAMs') is described for a detailed and comprehensive selection of traditional and contemporary bio-based accounts for each of the EU member states. To illustrate its potential, a structural analysis based on three different and complementary methods (Rasmussen-Jones, hypothetical extraction method and eigenvector) is performed to classify bio-based sector wealth generating properties and to identify high performance ('key') sectors.

Framework Proposal to Quantify the Contribution of Non-Wood Forest Products to the European Union Forest-Based Bioeconomy

“…By using this methodology, is it possible to analyze a specific forest ES and its role within the socioeconomic system. As highlighted in the study by Mainar-Causapé et al [37], there is a need to fill gaps in the BioSAMs regarding, in particular, a comprehensive representation of the forest sector, as well as additional transactions accounts to capture non-market ESs within the SAM structure. In this perspective, the incorporation of both social and market components of NWFPs into the forest sector represents a novelty addressing both aspects.…”

“…These AgroSAMs were then updated to the year 2007 by Philippidis et al [34] who also generated EU regional clusters with comparable agricultural sector structures. Continuing this research line, a new set of SAMs specifically designed for the study of bioeconomy and natural resources, referred to as the BioSAMs [35], further extended the accounts of the bio-based industry to include new sources of biomass and contemporary applications of biomass in the liquid fuel, energy, and chemical sectors [36,37]. The resulting BioSAMs, recently updated to the year 2015 [38], were utilized to calculate output and employment multipliers [39] as well as both backward-linkage (BL) and forward-linkage (FL) multipliers [40].…”

The bioeconomy in Spain as a new economic paradigm: the role of key sectors with different approaches

“…These different methodologies are considered as complementary for a better analysis of the structure of an economy and useful tools for the analysis of ex-ante policy evaluations, (i.e. ‘what if’ questions) (Iráizoz, 2006 ; Leung & Pooley, 2002 ; Mainar-Causapé et al, 2020 ).…”

“…The objective of the article is to analyse the bioeconomy structure in Spain using different methodologies and to identify those promising sectors as key wealth generators and growth promoters that will be suitable to stimulate with policies to promote the development of the Spanish bioeconomy. To this end, the symmetric Bioeconomic SAM Matrix for Spain 2010 constructed by the authors is used (Ferreira et al, 2021 ; Mainar-Causapé et al, 2020 ), and both the hypothetical extraction method and traditional methodologies are applied.…”

“…In this way, the BioSAM provides a comprehensive economy-wide frameworks that explicitly represent the linkages between the bioeconomy and the broader macroeconomy, and the combination of methodologies applied enables a more in-depth analysis of these linkages and therefore, a better interpretation of those most suitable sectors for promoting the bioeconomy (Iráizoz, 2006 ). As the key sector analysis offers the possibility of assess the relative (short-term) wealth-generating impact of a given demand-driven economic shock, it has attracted considerable interest in policy circles to better understand structural economic change and even for policy design (Mainar-Causapé et al, 2020 ). Consequently, the results obtained in this article could be very useful when designing future strategies that promote the growth of the bioeconomy in Spain since it provides knowledge of which accounts are most suitable for the effective and efficient assignation of government resources.…”