Transition to a Sustainable Bioeconomy in Ecuador: Resource Efficiency of the Austrian Economy with Comparative Evidence from South America

This article analyzes how Austrian economic principles contribute to bioeconomic development in Ecuador, emphasizing key aspects such as property rights, spontaneous order, entrepreneurial innovation, institutional frameworks and decentralized knowledge. The relevance of incorporating an instrumental case was established, in which the scale, composition, and technology (SCT) effects model was applied to the comparative analysis of Ecuador, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil during the 2000–2023 period. This study was complemented by multiple linear regression, which was used to evaluate the relationship between economic growth, CO2 emissions, the agricultural industry, foreign direct investment, and a composite bioeconomy index. The results showed complete decoupling between GDP and emissions in Ecuador, driven by technological improvements and transformations in key sectors such as agriculture and renewable energy. Chile and Brazil also showed paths of complete decoupling, although to a lesser extent for the latter, while Argentina exhibited relative decoupling, in which bioeconomic growth continues to be associated with an increase in emissions. The estimated models present an R2 (between 0.81 and 0.91). This study shows that it is possible to move towards a sustainable bioeconomy.