Economic impact of the bioeconomy in Spain: Multiplier effects with a bio social accounting matrix

Abstract

The bioeconomy emerges as a new economic model to help address issues related to environmental care and focus on a more sustainable economy. In the last decade, it has become a global priority and many countries have published their own strategies that clearly refer to the development of the bioeconomy. The symmetric social accounting matrix with basic prices was constructed, including the breakdown of biobased accounts belonging to the bioeconomy to determine which sectors of the bioeconomy are most strategic to promote sustainable economic growth. This constructed matrix was used to analyse the economic influence of the bioeconomy products and their impact on job creation. The analysis was carried out using the diffusion and absorption multipliers, which enabled the interpretation of the linkages between the different economic agents. The results were analysed in depth and the multipliers decomposed into their different effects, own, open and circular, and complemented with the calculation of the employment multiplier to evaluate the most important sectors for employment generation. The analysis was applied to the case of Spain. The results of this research enabled the identification of the strategic sectors where economic policies can be applied since these are the ones that increase economic growth and activities within the bioeconomy and create jobs. The conclusions indicated that the Spanish bioeconomy is still focused on traditional sectors and has not yet developed its potential in more innovative biobased products, demonstrating that the bioeconomy in Spain still has a long way to go.