Environmental legislation and achieving circular economy in Italy's waste sector: A shift-and-share macro-area analysis

In the European Union, the transition to a circular economy has been guided by supranational regulations, subsequently transposed by Member States. In Italy, transposition occurred through Legislative Decrees 22/1997 and 152/2006, which set ambitious waste targets. To test their effectiveness in promoting the transition, we implement a Shift-and-Share analysis on data over 1997–2006 and 2007–2019. The three Italian macro-areas (North, Centre and South) shared a virtuous planning phase (specialisation) and a penalising socioeconomic context (competitiveness) in the first period. In the second period, the situation reverted in Northern and Central Italy. Southern Italy remained anchored to the linear economy model.