Changes in the European Union households' consumption structure and the sustainable development

Abstract

The subject of this study is the relationship between the households' consumption structure changes and sustainable development. This research was conducted for the European Union (EU) countries in the years 2008–2020. Additionally, in the investigation, the considered area is divided into two separate regimes: countries that joined the EU before 2000 (referred to as Old EU Member States) and countries that joined the EU later (called New EU Member States). It is widely known that the territorial units in the first regime are relatively wealthier than those in the second group. As a result of differences in wealth between the defined regimes, consumer behaviours can vary. Sustainable consumption (SC) is one of the major aspects of sustainable development. SC indicates consumer choices that are both intentional and effective, and these choices demonstrate a positive impact on environmental and/or social conditions. In this research, the influence of households' consumption changes on the environmental pillar of sustainable development is evaluated. Caring for the natural environment is one of the main challenges today. In this research, another approach to measure environmental development is proposed. So far, different types of footprints have been used. This analysis considers most of the environmental indicators defined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG's). The environmental development of EU countries is evaluated based on the synthetic measure of development proposed by Hellwig. Moreover, the spatio-temporal sensitivity models are estimated and verified. The sensitivity parameter of these models shows the impact of consumption structure changes on environmental development, wherein the consumption structure is categorized into four groups of goods: services, non-durable, semi-durable, and durable. The spatial autoregressive (SAR) models are also estimated and verified. The investigation results point out the differences in the influence of consumption structure changes on sustainable development depending on the considered group of countries.