Despite high estimated gains of a circular economy implementation, progress on the macro, meso and micro level is sluggish. The purpose of this paper is to examine, from a theoretical economics perspective, how four barriers – technological, market, institutional and cultural – can prevent the implementation of a circular economy. The barriers that currently hinder a circular economy from developing are identified and a mapping of these barriers is performed to understand how they are interdependent and entangled. The conclusion is that even small barriers could stop the emergence of a circular economy. Even though a circular economy is different from our traditional “linear” economy, the theoretical analysis in this paper gives no reason to believe that a circular economy will not follow the same rules as a traditional economy. There will be property rights, rule of law and price signals guiding the economy. If some of the essential parts of a market are lacking, a weaker circular economy than otherwise possible will materialize.

尽管实施循环经济的估计收益很高，但宏观，中观和微观层面的进展仍然缓慢。本文的目的是从理论经济学的角度研究技术，市场，制度和文化四个障碍如何阻碍实施循环经济。确定当前阻碍循环经济发展的障碍，并对这些障碍进行映射，以了解它们是如何相互依存和纠缠在一起的。结论是，即使很小的障碍也可以阻止循环经济的出现。即使循环经济不同于我们传统的“线性”经济，本文的理论分析也没有理由相信循环经济不会遵循与传统经济相同的规则。将会有产权，法治和指导经济的价格信号。如果缺乏市场的某些基本组成部分，那么将出现比其他情况更弱的循环经济。