{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,27]],"date-time":"2026-03-27T12:02:08Z","timestamp":1774612928519,"version":"3.50.1"},"posted":{"date-parts":[[2026]]},"group-title":"SSRN","reference-count":27,"publisher":"Elsevier BV","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"abstract":"<jats:p>The continued growth of global material use poses a major challenge to achieving sustainability goals. Increasing resource productivity is frequently promoted as a pathway to decoupling economic growth from material consumption, yet evidence of absolute decoupling remains limited. Recent global assessments highlight that such outcomes depend not only on efficiency gains, but on deeper structural transformations of economic systems.This paper investigates how structural change shapes resource productivity trajectories in European economies and examines the implications of these dynamics for global sustainability governance. Using a comparative analysis of 31 European countries between 2000 and 2015, countries are grouped according to shared trends in resource productivity growth. An integrated framework combining economy-wide material flow analysis with monetary and physical input-output tables is then applied to characterize sectoral dynamics within each group.The results revealed distinct structural pathways with different resource productivity outcomes. Economies with limited progress remain reliant on material-intensive sectors, while higher productivity growth is associated with structural shifts towards less intensive activities accompanied by broad declines in domestic material use across sectors.While acknowledging that service-oriented economies may externalize part of their material demand through imports, the findings demonstrate that structural change is a necessary precondition for decoupling, though not sufficient in isolation. The paper provides sectoral evidence on how different economic structures influence resource productivity, highlighting the importance of aligning domestic structural transformation with trade and consumption-based governance mechanisms. The results offer insights relevant to the design of policies aimed at reducing material use while maintaining economic performance.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.2139\/ssrn.6478218","type":"posted-content","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,27]],"date-time":"2026-03-27T11:03:06Z","timestamp":1774609386000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Structural Change and Resource Productivity in European Economies: Implications for Global Sustainability Governance"],"prefix":"10.2139","author":[{"given":"Nuno","family":"Carvalhinho","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1559-9151","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Patr\u00edcia","family":"Baptista","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1357-9966","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Paulo  Cadete","family":"Ferr\u00e3o","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]}],"member":"78","reference":[{"key":"ref1","article-title":"Material efficiency: providing material services with less material production","volume":"371","author":"J M Allwood","year":"1986","journal-title":"Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences"},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ecolecon.2021.106948","article-title":"Material productivity, socioeconomic drivers and economic structures: A panel study for European regions","volume":"183","author":"M Bianchi","year":"2021","journal-title":"Ecological Economics"},{"issue":"1","key":"ref3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"23","DOI":"10.1023\/A:1011106527578","article-title":"Rethinking productivity: Why has productivity focussed on labour instead of natural resources?","volume":"19","author":"R Bleischwitz","year":"2001","journal-title":"Environmental and Resource Economics"},{"issue":"6","key":"ref4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1398","DOI":"10.1111\/jiec.13184","article-title":"A framework to analyze the dynamics of the socioeconomic metabolism of countries: A Portuguese case study","volume":"25","author":"S Cunha","year":"2021","journal-title":"Journal of Industrial Ecology"},{"key":"ref5","author":"S Cunha","year":"2022","journal-title":"Can structural changes lead to dematerialization? 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