Frontiers in Environmental Economics最新文献

{"title":"Consumer analysis and the role of information in sustainable choices: A natural experiment","authors":"Rocco Caferra, E. Imbert, D. Schirone, Paola Tiranzoni, A. Morone","doi":"10.3389/frevc.2022.1044206","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/frevc.2022.1044206","url":null,"abstract":"“I shop therefore I am” (R. Campbell), or putting it differently, we are what we buy, and the way we make our purchases influences the future choices of economic decision-makers. Therefore, our decisions are crucial in defining the future sustainability of the whole system. Despite the plethora of initiatives introduced to enhance consumers' consciousness, the gap between ideal and real consumption attitude still exists and is a non-negligible problem, since subjects' sustainability intention is not always followed by sustainable consumption. Therefore, by employing a natural field experiment, the present work explores consumers' real behavior toward sustainable switching. Specifically, this study examines how the impact of targeted communication leads to a market basket sustainable shift. Indeed, we observe how the consumer's basket composition varies from control (where no targeted communication is included) to treatment (where specific and detailed communication is introduced through ad-hoc on-site banner signals). Results show the positive impact of the communication; after the introduction of the communication, the share of sustainable products is higher compared with the non-sustainable set of products. As a further extension, we consider the role played by product aesthetics: even if the effect is marked for sustainable products preserving the characteristics of the conventional substitute, such effect vanishes when a subset of radically different products is considered.","PeriodicalId":241760,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Environmental Economics","volume":"131 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115618340","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Modeling the causal dynamics among energy consumption, economic growth, and oil import prices: A panel co-integration analysis for EU economies","authors":"A. Gibba, Muhammad Kamran Khan","doi":"10.3389/frevc.2023.1114175","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/frevc.2023.1114175","url":null,"abstract":"The circular economy creates a robust system that can combat global concerns like climate change, biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution by decoupling economic activity from the use of natural resources. This study for the first time in European Union (EU) countries, examines the impact of economic growth, urbanization, investment in information technology and communication (IT&C), oil import prices, environmental technology and environmental tax on energy consumption. Additionally, it also examined the impact of oil import prices, urbanization, energy consumption, investment in information technology and communication, environmental technology and environmental tax on economic growth by using panel autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model for the estimations over the period 1990–2020. According to the correlation matrix's estimations, findings suggest that the economic expansion of the EU member countries is positively influenced by oil import prices, urbanization, environmental technology and energy consumption, while negatively impacted by investment in IT&C and environmental taxes both in the short and long-run. On the other hand, energy consumption is found to be positively impacted by economic growth, urbanization and oil import prices while negatively influenced by investment in IT&C, environmental taxes and environmental related technologies. In addition, the results of the panel ARDL model indicate that oil import prices positively and significantly influence the economic growth of the EU members. However, results of urbanization reveal a negative influence on economic growth in the short-term, but in the long-run, it has a favorable and considerable influence on the economic growth of the European Union. Finally, the research has implications for policy makers and regulators in the EU.","PeriodicalId":241760,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Environmental Economics","volume":"31 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127912533","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"COP-27: A great opportunity to address the double crisis of food security and climate change–and for the EU to re-align its farm to fork strategy","authors":"P. Aerni","doi":"10.3389/frevc.2022.1082869","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/frevc.2022.1082869","url":null,"abstract":"The 27th Conference of the Parties (COP 27) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) held in November 2022 in Sharm-el-Sheik, Egypt, ended with joint commitments to compensate for loss and damage and increase funds for climate change adaptation in future. This outcome is likely to be supportive of current efforts to render agricultural systems in low income tropical countries more resilient and productive through locally adapted forms of sustainable intensification. However, the farm-to-fork (f2f) strategy launched in 2020 by the European Union (EU) has set targets that associate sustainable agriculture primarily with extensification rather than intensification. This paper critically reviews the literature that assesses the impact of current agricultural, environmental and development policies on global food security, biodiversity and climate change. It challenges the view that the European Green Deal and the f2f strategy will have its desired effects. It also argues that the intention of the European Commission (EC) to promote the f2f strategy in low income tropical countries may not be compatible with its commitment to the ownership principle in development assistance. The decision of the EC in fall 2022 to propose a regulatory framework on new breeding techniques (NBTs) indicates that methods of sustainable intensification may be reconsidered if they serve the goals of the Green Deal and the f2f strategy. Such a readjustment would also be in line with the outcome of COP27 and indicate that the polarized global debate on sustainable food systems may become more pragmatic and outcome-oriented again.","PeriodicalId":241760,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Environmental Economics","volume":"30 2","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114059066","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"An enterprise structure approach improves index-based crop portfolio decision-making","authors":"Agness Mzyece, V. Amanor-Boadu, John N. Ng’ombe","doi":"10.3389/frevc.2023.1074865","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/frevc.2023.1074865","url":null,"abstract":"Introduction While crop diversification indices are relatively simple and useful for quantifying the extent of crop diversification, they may not account for the potential differences in the types of crops grown. This study shows the need to complement crop diversification indices with an enterprise structure approach to improve index-based crop portfolio decision making. Methods The study uses linear regression models and nationally representative farm survey data from 7,934 farmers in Zambia. The study compares the enterprise approach and the Simpson index of diversification which is commonly used in crop diversification studies. Results and discussion We find that complementing the enterprise structure approach with the Simpson index of diversification can increase profitability by as high as 77.89% for farmers. The cassava enterprise structure had the most returns for farmers. It had a gross margin of ZMW 3,887 per hectare and was trailed by the maize/groundnuts/cotton/rice enterprise structure with a gross margin of ZMW3,681 per hectare. These results suggest that the use of aggregation crop diversification indices, without an additional enterprise structure analysis, may obscure the necessary insights needed to practically help farmers.","PeriodicalId":241760,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Environmental Economics","volume":"130 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115894514","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The mixed blessing of responsibility relief: An application to household recycling and curbside waste collection","authors":"S. Andersson, Patrik Söderholm, C. Berglund","doi":"10.3389/frevc.2022.1081926","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/frevc.2022.1081926","url":null,"abstract":"This paper addresses the role of personal norms and warm glow in influencing households' waste recycling preferences. The purpose is to explore inter-household differences in the preferences toward the introduction of curbside recycling, which implies that households are relieved from the responsibility of transporting sorted waste to assigned drop-off stations. The main theoretical point of departure for the analysis is an existing model that integrates norm-motivated behavior into neoclassical utility theory. This builds on the assumption that the household members have preferences for upholding a self-image as responsible—norm-compliant—persons, and it also contains a warm-glow component. The empirical investigation relies on a postal survey to households in a Swedish municipality, and this asks households about their willingness-to-pay (WTP) for the introduction of a curbside recycling scheme, as well as about time use and the presence of personal norms and warm glow motives. The results are based on a Heckman selection specification and show that individuals expressing a strong personal norm for recycling are more likely to be willing to pay for curbside recycling, while those with strong warm glow motives are less likely to do so. This suggests the existence of a mixed blessing of responsibility relief. Curbside recycling implies that households are relieved from a moral responsibility that takes time away from leisure activities, but they also experience a loss in warm glow as such a scheme removes the possibility to pursue something that they have learned to appreciate. There could then exist ‘motivational inertia' making it difficult for policy makers to activate personal norms for new pro-environmental household activities in replacement of existing ones.","PeriodicalId":241760,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Environmental Economics","volume":"73 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130633643","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Minimum participation requirements and the role of co-benefits in international climate policy","authors":"Anja Brumme, D. Rübbelke","doi":"10.3389/frevc.2022.1106186","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/frevc.2022.1106186","url":null,"abstract":"Effective combat of international environmental problems regularly necessitates a minimum number of participating countries. Some international environmental treaties like the Paris Agreement combating global warming and the Montreal Protocol protecting the ozone layer required that a minimum participation threshold be met before they entered into force. Albeit the immense challenge to protect the global climate, the Paris Agreement additionally demands to address sustainable development and therefore seeks to take advantage of potential co-benefits of climate protection measures. This article is, to the authors' knowledge, the first to investigate in 3 × 3 normal form games the prospects for effective international cooperation on climate protection if effectiveness requires a minimum number of participating countries. The main findings are, first, that sustainable development co-benefits from mitigation might increase the chance that the minimum participation threshold is met and climate policy will be effective in the end; and second, if domestic ancillary benefits from mitigation are rather small, new organizational designs could create additional sustainability benefits that are limited to mitigating countries. For example, a win-win situation – regarding climate and sustainability – could be achieved by international policy designs that create additional co-benefit spillovers via the establishment of a club pursuing sustainable innovations (in line with UN Sustainable Development Goal 9).","PeriodicalId":241760,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Environmental Economics","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132866128","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Impact of the change in household dietary patterns on CO2 emissions in Japan","authors":"Sungtae Eun","doi":"10.3389/frevc.2022.1010117","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/frevc.2022.1010117","url":null,"abstract":"Japan is a country committed to complying with the international agreement on mitigating greenhouse gases (GHGs) causing climate change. However, the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami in March 2011 led the country had to modify the energy and environmental policy to global warming. The 15 m of tsunami occurred from an underwater earthquake hit the east coast where the nuclear reactors were located. The coolant system failed and the radioactive materials were spread out into the atmosphere, ocean, and soil. The Japanese government investigated the level of contaminated materials (iodine, cesium, etc.) and reassessed the food safety regulations. Simultaneously, consumers' anxiety about the food system was increasing and their preferences for food consumption were affected by the food safety phenomenon that arose in connection with the nuclear accident after the natural disaster. Japanese consumers avoided agricultural and fish products originating from the land and sea, so the consumption per capita of fish decreased by 11.3% while the beef consumption increased by 13.7% between 2011 and 2020. As reported by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), meat and dairy products are accounted for around 16.5% of global GHGs emissions per year, and there are differences in the emission factors between beef (40.5 kgCO2e/kg) and fish (7.7 kgCO2e/kg). Per capita meat and fish consumption in Japan affected the GHGs emissions and the study employs the Synthetic Control Method (SCM) to estimate the impact of a change in dietary patterns on CO2 emissions from household food consumption. The outcome variable is CO2 emissions from household food consumption and the intervention period is between 1995 and 2019 (pre-intervention: 1995–2010; post-intervention: 2011–2019). Analyzing 32 countries, placebo studies, leave-one-out, and post-/pre-MSPE ratio are performed to make the statistical inferences. The results present that there is a meaningful relationship between the dietary patterns and the increase in CO2 emissions. Unlike the countries in the control group, Japan shows a significant increase in CO2 emissions from household food consumption after the natural disaster. However, the westernization of the diet can be another long-term factor affecting climate change. Therefore, future research can involve analyzing the impact of CO2 emissions from household food consumption in multiple treated countries with multiple interventions.","PeriodicalId":241760,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Environmental Economics","volume":"63 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121675685","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Drivers of farmers' intentions to use eco-breeding: Integrating the theory of planned behavior and the norm activation model","authors":"Xingdong Wang, Pan Lu, Jin Tang, Xueping Gao, Wenmei Liao, Zhenlin Weng","doi":"10.3389/frevc.2022.1035176","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/frevc.2022.1035176","url":null,"abstract":"Ecological breeding (eco-breeding) is a systematic ecological farming method for the benefit of the environment and human health, but farmers have adopted this method only to a lesser extent. The main objective of this study was to examine the factors that influence farmers' intentions to use eco-breeding methods. The study model was a combined application of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and the normative activation model (NAM) to investigate the intentions of 527 Chinese farmers to engage in eco-breeding practices. Structural equation modeling analysis revealed that although the farmers' intention to adopt eco-breeding practices was influenced by both self-interested and altruistic motives, self-interested motives had a greater impact on the farmers' choices. Furthermore, favorable attitudes had the greatest effect on the farmers' intentions to implement eco-breeding, while past habits had no statistically significant effect on the intentions. Nonetheless, past habits significantly influenced attitudes and perceived behavior control in the combined model. In addition, the findings indicated that awareness of consequences had a significant effect on personal norms and the attribution of responsibility. Overall, the findings demonstrate the good efficiency as well as comprehensiveness of the integrated TPB-NAM in explaining the farmers' intentions to engage in eco-breeding practices. This study increases our understanding of the factors influencing the farmers' adoption of eco-breeding practices and helps to promote the adoption of eco-breeding in rural areas while providing a basis for the development of eco-breeding policy interventions.","PeriodicalId":241760,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Environmental Economics","volume":"26 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131716190","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Exploring the role of digital inclusive finance in agricultural carbon emissions reduction in China: Insights from a two-way fixed-effects model","authors":"Lingyun Liu, Guoli Wang, Kaiyi Song","doi":"10.3389/frevc.2022.1012346","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/frevc.2022.1012346","url":null,"abstract":"Digital inclusive finance can help to achieve agricultural carbon reduction through effective resource allocation, financial innovation, and digital networks. This study empirically tested the role of digital inclusive finance in agricultural carbon emissions reduction using a two-way fixed-effects model that was based on panel data of 30 provinces from 2011 to 2019 in China. The data and statistics showed that China's total agricultural carbon emissions were still growing and had not yet reached their peak. This empirical study found that digital inclusive finance had a significant effect on the reduction in agricultural carbon emissions. Specifically, for every one-level increase in the digital financial inclusion development (DFII) level, the province's total agricultural carbon emissions (TACC), agricultural greenhouse gas carbon emissions (ACGC), and agricultural carbon source carbon emissions (ACSC) decreased by 0.31, 0.38, and 0.25%, respectively, but there was no significant decrease in agricultural energy use carbon emissions (ACEC)1. Furthermore, the first- and second-order lagged terms of digital inclusive finance still had significant agricultural carbon reduction effects, reducing TACC by 0.30 and 0.29%, respectively. To better utilize the agricultural carbon emissions reduction effect of digital inclusive finance, we should further support the development of digital inclusive finance; promote education on, and the breadth and depth of digital inclusive finance; encourage cooperation between digital inclusive finance and low-carbon enterprises to reduce the financing constraints of agricultural low-carbon enterprises; and stimulate the R&D and sales of low-carbon technologies.","PeriodicalId":241760,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Environmental Economics","volume":"14 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116784717","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Economics of Climate Change: Global Trends, Country Specifics and Digital Perspectives of Climate Action","authors":"E. Popkova, Xunpeng Shi","doi":"10.3389/frevc.2022.935368","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/frevc.2022.935368","url":null,"abstract":"The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a symbol of progressiveness, humanity and unity of the modern world. Among them is SDG 13 “Climate action,” signaling the acute urgency of climate change issues. The value of the SDGs lies in the fact that they show the close connection and consistency of the social, economic and environmental spheres of economic activity. The presence of this link, officially recognized by the UN, indicates that climate change is not only an environmental problem, but also a social and economic problem, and the solution of this problem requires coordinated actions in all areas. The economics of climate change is a field of scientific knowledge and economic practices at the intersection of economics and ecology, a special subsection of environmental economics. Typical topics in this field include carbon tax policies (including emission trading scheme), the economics of mitigation and adaptation, and more recently issues related to global environmental challenges emerged. Numerous existing literature on the economics of climate change (e.g., Popkova et al., 2021) provides a lot of evidence that climate change is changing the economic landscape. For example, unpredictable and unfavorable climates threaten agriculture and prevent food provision (Charnock and Hoskin, 2020). It is also noted that responsible and sustainable agriculture can help combat climate change (Bruce et al., 2018; de Albuquerque, 2020). The available literature also provides extensive evidence of the strong impact of the functioning and development (growth) of the economy on climate change. For example, industrial production typically has high environmental costs, and economic decarbonization slows climate change (Aboulnaga et al., 2020). In this regard, it is necessary to harmonize the economic and environmental interests of modern economic systems and find ways to achieve these interests in a balanced way. Information pertaining to the costs and benefits of climate change and its countermeasures are key foundations of the field. Their qualification involves advanced measures such as non-market value (Cullen and Mansur, 2017) and the social cost of carbon (Nordhaus, 2019) and continuous advancement in research is needed.","PeriodicalId":241760,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Environmental Economics","volume":"18 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122698278","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}