Ebun Akinsete, Alina Velias, Lydia Papadaki, Lazaros-Antonios Chatzilazarou, Phoebe Koundouri
{"title":"Blending Experimental Economics and Living Laboratories in Water Resource Management","authors":"Ebun Akinsete, Alina Velias, Lydia Papadaki, Lazaros-Antonios Chatzilazarou, Phoebe Koundouri","doi":"10.1146/annurev-resource-013024-033007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-resource-013024-033007","url":null,"abstract":"The increasing pressure on global water supplies from overexploitation, drought, and pollution necessitates efficient and sustainable water management. Integrated water resource management strategies have shown effectiveness in decision support, but a deeper integration of economic and participative methodologies is needed. This research reviews the core characteristics and directions of experimental economics and living labs (LLs) and aims to address three research questions, namely, how the participatory, real-world environment of living laboratories can be incorporated into the controlled, hypothesis-driven nature of experimental economics; what is the significance of behavioral insights that are derived from experimental economics in the design and implementation of living labs; and how these two approaches can be merged under one framework. The focus of this review is the improvement of water resource management through collaborative and stakeholder-driven innovation. LLs provide authentic environments for cocreation, allowing scientists and stakeholders to address water-related issues such as supply, demand, and shortage. These environments connect controlled experimental conditions with real applications, providing comprehensive insights into behavioral reactions and policy formulation. LLs can enhance and be strengthened by economic methodologies, particularly in water valuation through integrated frameworks accounting for environmental externalities and opportunity costs. Finally, this article shows that integrating behavioral insights and experimental approaches within LLs improves the external validity of experimental economics by putting interventions in real-world settings.","PeriodicalId":48856,"journal":{"name":"Annual Review of Resource Economics","volume":"121 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2025-10-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145255732","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Well-Being and the Environment","authors":"Heinz Welsch","doi":"10.1146/annurev-resource-112923-013331","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-resource-112923-013331","url":null,"abstract":"Over the past quarter century, a growing literature has found that human subjective well-being (SWB) significantly depends on the quality of the natural environment. Air pollution and global warming in particular affect life satisfaction negatively, whereas access to green spaces, but also one's own environmentally friendly behaviors, are associated with greater satisfaction. This article discusses the conceptual and empirical frameworks and recent topical issues of the economics of well-being and the environment, including the concept, measurement, and correlates of SWB, recent developments in using SWB data for environmental valuation, the well-being effects of carbon pricing, and the link between well-being and proenvironmental behaviors. Taking SWB as a measure of utility, the article highlights deviations from the standard economic model uncovered by studies of SWB and the environment.","PeriodicalId":48856,"journal":{"name":"Annual Review of Resource Economics","volume":"8 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2025-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145234928","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Phoebe Koundouri, Conrad Felix Michel Landis, Konstantinos Dellis, Angelos Plataniotis
{"title":"Integrating Sustainable Development Goals in Environmental, Social, and Governance Criteria and the Sustainability Transformation of the EU Business Sector","authors":"Phoebe Koundouri, Conrad Felix Michel Landis, Konstantinos Dellis, Angelos Plataniotis","doi":"10.1146/annurev-resource-010224-080807","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-resource-010224-080807","url":null,"abstract":"This article reviews environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within the EU policy framework. It evaluates integration of the SDGs into existing sustainability reporting frameworks, advocating for more comprehensive and interdisciplinary approaches to embed long-term SDGs in corporate sustainability reporting. This is considered essential to accelerate the EU business sector's sustainability transformation. Moreover, this review evaluates the effectiveness of current frameworks in influencing firm behavior, particularly in reducing pollution levels, promoting green innovation, and complying with enhanced disclosure requirements. Finally, it concludes by suggesting that, while progress has been made, there is a need for further alignment and refinement of these frameworks to ensure that they drive meaningful corporate action and policy development toward achieving the transformation to sustainability.","PeriodicalId":48856,"journal":{"name":"Annual Review of Resource Economics","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2025-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145234929","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Integrating Political-Economic Industrial Policy Design in Natural Resource Sectors","authors":"Gordon Rausser, William Foster, Elliot Choi","doi":"10.1146/annurev-resource-013024-033035","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-resource-013024-033035","url":null,"abstract":"The debate on industrial policies has long been polarized between proponents of government intervention and free-market advocates. Proponents argue for market failure correction and industry nurturing, while opponents warn of the inability of the government to “pick winners” and its vulnerability to rent-seeking interests. What the current literature overlooks is that effective industrial policies must simultaneously design pie-expanding “public good” policies with appropriate redistribution policies to facilitate their political acceptance. Using this notion, this review proposes a new approach by extending the political-economic seeking transfer and political-economic resource transaction (PEST-PERT) portfolio framework to examine the efficacy of industrial policies in the agricultural, natural resource, and environmental sectors. Several empirical examples are presented, including payment for ecosystem services, conservation programs, agricultural policy reform, development subsidies to increase maize productivity, infrastructure development, and transportation investments. These industrial policy portfolios are dissected for two policy types: (<jats:italic>a</jats:italic>) pie-expanding policies that promote public goods, reduce transaction costs, and resolve coordination failures; and (<jats:italic>b</jats:italic>) redistributive policies often needed to overcome opposition from blocking coalitions. In each empirical study, the policy portfolio is specified, distinguishing these two types of policies.","PeriodicalId":48856,"journal":{"name":"Annual Review of Resource Economics","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144850484","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
William A. Masters, Jessica K. Wallingford, Rachel D. Gilbert, Elena M. Martinez, Yan Bai, Kristina Sokourenko, Anna W. Herforth
{"title":"Are Healthy Foods Affordable? The Past, Present, and Future of Measuring Food Access Using Least-Cost Diets","authors":"William A. Masters, Jessica K. Wallingford, Rachel D. Gilbert, Elena M. Martinez, Yan Bai, Kristina Sokourenko, Anna W. Herforth","doi":"10.1146/annurev-resource-121523-015144","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-resource-121523-015144","url":null,"abstract":"This review describes the history, current practice, and prospects for measuring a population's access to foods for health using the lowest-cost locally available items, in contrast to quantities actually chosen, so as to distinguish between unaffordability of healthy diets and other causes of malnutrition. Retail prices, cost per day, and affordability relative to earnings have been used to measure food access for centuries, driving early definitions of poverty and income thresholds for subsistence. Substitution between items based on food composition was introduced soon after nutrient requirements were quantified, leading to the development of linear programming and other diet modeling techniques. This article describes how and why modern diet cost and affordability metrics have been adopted by international organizations, government agencies, and researchers to monitor food markets and guide intervention, concluding with new frontiers for research on other factors limiting access to healthy diets, such as cooking costs and time use, and factors that cause displacement of low-cost healthy diets by other foods.","PeriodicalId":48856,"journal":{"name":"Annual Review of Resource Economics","volume":"115 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2025-07-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144684607","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nicola Comincioli, Christopher R. Knittel, Elsa A. Olivetti, Ilenia G. Romani, Sergio Vergalli
{"title":"Critical Minerals for a Just Energy Transition","authors":"Nicola Comincioli, Christopher R. Knittel, Elsa A. Olivetti, Ilenia G. Romani, Sergio Vergalli","doi":"10.1146/annurev-resource-011224-050431","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-resource-011224-050431","url":null,"abstract":"This article provides a critical review of the socioeconomic impacts of mining critical raw materials (CRMs), whose global demand is rising at an unprecedented pace due to the ongoing energy transition. Our review focuses on five key socioeconomic aspects: health, employment, human development, public services, and culture. These areas are significantly affected by mining in general, and by CRM extraction in particular, each with distinct features. By critically surveying the scientific literature on the spillovers of extractive industry, this review investigates and highlights the complexity of the interconnected impacts on the communities and regions that host mining projects. Thus, we call for a holistic, interdisciplinary approach to better understand these effects and their interactions. This perspective can help the international community pursue not only the energy transition, but also a just energy transition—one that internalizes the negative socioeconomic externalities and considers social justice, while mitigating environmental harms.","PeriodicalId":48856,"journal":{"name":"Annual Review of Resource Economics","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2025-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144766180","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Biofuels: Past, Present, and Future","authors":"Gabriel E. Lade, Aaron Smith","doi":"10.1146/annurev-resource-011724-082950","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-resource-011724-082950","url":null,"abstract":"Biofuels are a fixture of modern US fuels markets due largely to the Renewable Fuel Standard, which was passed 20 years ago. We provide a broad overview of modern federal biofuel policies, highlighting key industry trends and policy controversies. We divide our focus into past versus present issues. Past issues include concerns over food price impacts and land use changes due to the policies, as well as the limited ability of mandates to spur investment and bring down the cost of low-carbon cellulosic ethanol production. Present issues include the increasing importance of state policies and the rise of the renewable diesel industry. We conclude by discussing emerging markets for sustainable aviation fuel and the return of concerns around food price effects, land use change impacts, and the scarcity of low-cost, low-carbon biofuels.","PeriodicalId":48856,"journal":{"name":"Annual Review of Resource Economics","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2025-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144763378","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nicola A. Ranger, Christopher Adam, Channing Arndt, Roberto Spacey Martín
{"title":"Climate Change and Sub-Saharan Africa: The Role of Central Banks","authors":"Nicola A. Ranger, Christopher Adam, Channing Arndt, Roberto Spacey Martín","doi":"10.1146/annurev-resource-112923-094342","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-resource-112923-094342","url":null,"abstract":"Climate change is driving three transformations in the landscape of global finance, with implications for central banks in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). First, pressures on financial institutions related to climate-related physical risks are mounting, with potential to threaten price and financial stability. Second, global and domestic responses to climate change are creating risks and opportunities for SSA economies. Third, the ongoing shift in the global financial architecture toward sustainability could either crowd-out or crowd-in international investment flows to SSA. Uncertainties in each increase the challenges for central banks and supervisors. We find that, without action, the risks outweigh the opportunities. To fulfil their mandates, SSA's central banks are obliged to react; however, the paucity of peer-reviewed evidence hinders the development and execution of appropriate responses. Preparedness is crucial if actions by SSA central banks are to play their part in shifting the balance towards managing risks and grasping opportunities.","PeriodicalId":48856,"journal":{"name":"Annual Review of Resource Economics","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2025-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144639817","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Justin Andrew Johnson, Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer, Melissa Chapman, Stephen Polasky, Brooke Williams
{"title":"Earth-Economy Modeling: Advances in Linking Economic and Ecosystem Models","authors":"Justin Andrew Johnson, Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer, Melissa Chapman, Stephen Polasky, Brooke Williams","doi":"10.1146/annurev-resource-013024-033043","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-resource-013024-033043","url":null,"abstract":"This article reviews a wide range of models that integrate ecological and economic systems, presenting Earth-Economy (EE) modeling as a general approach for sustainable management in these contexts. EE models combine global, general equilibrium economic models with high-resolution Earth system models and include two-way linkages between Earth systems and the economy, enabling data-focused decision support for sustainability. We conduct a systematic review of models related to this domain, create a typology of relevant models, and discuss the interconnections between them. We include a detailed definition of EE modeling and discuss how the relevant models can be integrated and extended to improve the comprehensiveness with which we model sustainability. This review shows both the importance and associated challenges, but also the high demand, for this type of model.","PeriodicalId":48856,"journal":{"name":"Annual Review of Resource Economics","volume":"21 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2025-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144602878","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Lenis Saweda O. Liverpool-Tasie, Mesay Yami Gurmu, Nicole M. Mason, Justice A. Tambo
{"title":"The Changing Landscape of Africa's Fertilizer Market: Implications for Research and Policy","authors":"Lenis Saweda O. Liverpool-Tasie, Mesay Yami Gurmu, Nicole M. Mason, Justice A. Tambo","doi":"10.1146/annurev-resource-011624-035930","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-resource-011624-035930","url":null,"abstract":"This article synthesizes peer-reviewed studies on fertilizer demand and supply in Africa published from 2007 to 2024. This large body of literature is skewed toward fertilizer demand, with little emphasis on critical supply chain challenges such as high costs and logistics, nor does it focus on the rising importance of micro, small, and medium enterprises (e.g., agrodealers), fertilizer production, and blending in Africa. Additionally, most research has focused on a relatively small number of countries and on cereal crops, overlooking Africa's geographic, crop, and dietary diversity. The article advocates for a broader research agenda that recognizes the recent dynamism in African fertilizer markets and challenges posed by climate change, conflict, and other shocks. It emphasizes the critical need for new and better-quality data for this research agenda to be executed and to provide empirical evidence-based guidance for more effective and efficient fertilizer use and, ultimately, enhanced agricultural productivity and sustainability on the continent.","PeriodicalId":48856,"journal":{"name":"Annual Review of Resource Economics","volume":"697 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2025-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144594181","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}