Innovation, Income, and Waste Disposal Operations in Korea: Evidence from a Spectral Granger Causality Analysis and Artificial Neural Networks Experiments

The aim of this paper is to assess the causal relationship among innovation in environment-related technologies, per capita income, and three major waste disposal operations (landfill, recycling, and incineration) for Korea. A time-series analysis over the frequency domain (Breitung–Candelon Spectral Granger causality) is applied, followed by Artificial Neural Networks experiments over the 1985–2016 period. Empirical results highlight that economic growth is tightly linked both to the growth of recycled waste and to the increase of environment-related innovations. Findings also highlight that waste recycling operations can spur the level of economic activity.