Ecological Economics最新文献

{"title":"Cost-efficient allocation of ship measures and harvest of aquatic invasive species – An application to invasive crabs on the west coast of Sweden","authors":"Ing-Marie Gren ,&nbsp;Lars Arneborg ,&nbsp;Sandra-Esther Brunnabend ,&nbsp;Sam Fredriksson ,&nbsp;Lena Granhag ,&nbsp;Björn Källström","doi":"10.1016/j.ecolecon.2025.108612","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecolecon.2025.108612","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The purpose of this study was to identify cost-efficient combinations of control measures (harvest of established invaders) and prevention measures (ballast water treatment and antifouling to prevent invaders) to achieve targets for the maximum population sizes of two invasive crabs, the Asian shore crab (<em>Hemigrapsus sanguineus</em>) and brush-clawed shore crab (<em>Hemigrapsus takanoi</em>), in interconnected water basins on the west coast of Sweden. To this end, a spatial bio-economic model was developed using transect methods to quantify population sizes and an ocean circulation high-resolution coastal model constructed to estimate connectivity between the water basins. The results showed that both harvest and vessel treatment measures offer cost-efficient solutions, but their optimal levels and timings depend on the choice of spatial target for acceptable population sizes. The costs can be high if increases in populations are to be avoided, but these costs are doubled when the target is to eradicate the populations. The results were also sensitive to parameter values in the population dynamics and cost functions, and to assumptions involved in policymakers' decisions about the targets to be achieved.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51021,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Economics","volume":"235 ","pages":"Article 108612"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143759860","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":"Socio-economic and volume effects of a circular value chain for clothing","authors":"Julie Metta ,&nbsp;Kris Bachus ,&nbsp;Sandra Rousseau","doi":"10.1016/j.ecolecon.2025.108625","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecolecon.2025.108625","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We investigate the socio-economic effects of further activating the circular value chain for clothing on the labour market in the Netherlands. We develop a value chain model to evaluate the direct gross effects of changes in production, consumption, and end-of-life activities and map the value chain, limited to the part of the clothing value chain that takes place within the geographical borders of the Netherlands. Further, we evaluate both the Dutch government's scenarios for a circular economy and a set of circular objectives that lead to an optimised projection for 2050. We find that the circular value chain for clothing can have positive effects on the Dutch labour market, including creating new jobs, and upscaling existing ones. Specifically, we evaluated the Dutch clothing value chain through “Rethink,” “Reuse,” and “Recycle” scenarios, which respectively reduced imports, increased job creation with potential price impacts, and prioritized waste minimization. Moreover, the optimisation results indicated that pursuing circular economy objectives boosted both gross and low-skilled labour demand, but a narrow focus on labour maximisation raised other variables, underscoring the need for balanced strategies. Effective resource minimisation reduced clothing volumes, while “Rethink” and “Reuse” strategies required less low-skilled labour compared to recycling, emphasizing targeted skill training's importance. However, focusing solely on job creation may backfire and may not lead to the best circular outcomes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51021,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Economics","volume":"235 ","pages":"Article 108625"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143768374","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":"Relative environmental impacts and monetary cost of food categories: Functional unit matters","authors":"Florent Vieux ,&nbsp;Matthieu Maillot ,&nbsp;Corinne Marmonier ,&nbsp;Anthony Rouault ,&nbsp;Marlène Perignon ,&nbsp;Nicole Darmon","doi":"10.1016/j.ecolecon.2025.108620","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecolecon.2025.108620","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The aim of this study was to explore how the choice of a functional unit (FU) influences the environmental and economic rankings of food categories. For each adult in the latest French national dietary survey (<em>n</em> = 2121), we built a dataset providing the energy and nutritional content, environmental impacts (14 metrics) and monetary cost of 20 food categories as consumed. The cost and environmental impacts of each food category were expressed for each individual according to 4 general FUs (1 kg, 100 kcal, 1 portion, 1 nutritional quality unit) and 9 nutrient-specific FUs (e.g., 50 g of proteins), and categories were ranked according to their median impact or cost. Cost and environmental rankings of food categories differed according to the FU (especially with nutrient-specific ones). Despite such heterogeneous rankings, some results were generally consistent: compared to other food categories, legumes, potatoes and whole grains were less expensive and less impacting, meats (especially ruminant ones) were more expensive and more impacting, and dairy and eggs had intermediate cost and environmental impacts. By providing a wide overview of different “metric × FU” situations, this study contributes to answering the important question of the right FU to use when evaluating the sustainability of food.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51021,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Economics","volume":"234 ","pages":"Article 108620"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2025-03-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143725521","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":"Corporate governance and ecological investments. The case of French industry","authors":"Simon Nadel,&nbsp;Magali Savès","doi":"10.1016/j.ecolecon.2025.108588","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecolecon.2025.108588","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines the links between corporate governance and ecological investment decisions, focusing on arrangements aimed at democratizing decision-making: integration of new actors in decision-making processes, the development of ecological competencies within the firm, and the introduction of sustainability criteria into its management. Our study is based on an original database of 1788 establishments, representative of French manufacturing industry establishments with more than 20 employees. We use a Heckman selection bias model to demonstrate that corporate governance arrangements associated with the initiation of ecological investments differ from those linked to their intensification. We contribute to the discussion on workplace democracy and its relation to the ecologizing of firms by exploring various combinations of corporate governance. Our study highlights the complex relationship between ecological investments and governance arrangements aimed at democratizing corporate decision-making. While the formal integration of employees and external stakeholders into decision-making processes does not positively correlate with ecological investment, the adoption of sustainable management tools appears to play a critical role in mitigating the tensions observed. This suggests that structural reforms in corporate governance must go beyond symbolic employee integration and focus on creating the conditions necessary for meaningful collaboration and alignment of ecological and labor interests.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51021,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Economics","volume":"234 ","pages":"Article 108588"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2025-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143725518","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Allocating conservation resources between uncertain future states of nature","authors":"Neil Perry ,&nbsp;Sriram Shankar","doi":"10.1016/j.ecolecon.2025.108610","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecolecon.2025.108610","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>When uncertainty prevails, conservation decision makers allocate funds, inputs and resources between future states of nature to hedge their bets. Decision makers explicitly or implicitly substitute biodiversity in one future state of nature for biodiversity in another. However, the decision making frameworks common in conservation biology do not model, explain or justify such behavior. Frameworks such as information gap analysis, expected benefit, stochastic dominance and minimizing the maximum loss result in resources being dedicated to one state of nature. Portfolio theory applied to conservation under uncertainty leads to resource allocations across states of nature but the framework we propose in this paper is more general and a better (more realistic) representation of conservation decision making. Utilizing a standard hypothetical example of maximizing the population size of the endangered orange-bellied parrot (<em>Neophema chrysogaster</em>), we develop the state-contingent approach and contrast it with standard decision-making frameworks. We explain that the state-contingent approach is unique because it is explicit about the relationship between actions and the states of nature that could arise. The extent to which any one action or future state of nature receives funding depends on three variables – the subjective probability that the state of nature will arise, society's risk preferences, and the conservation technology, or the effectiveness of the conservation action under different states of nature. We focus on the conservation technology and introduce three different classes – state general technologies, state allocable technologies, and state specific technologies. Each type of conservation technology leads to different allocation solutions and we provide examples from the conservation literature where each technology applies. Using a framework grounded in economic theory, the state-contingent approach improves the justification of precautionary conservation action, and we discuss the applicability of the approach to the conservation of the Tasmanian devil (<em>Sarcophilus harrisii</em>).</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51021,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Economics","volume":"234 ","pages":"Article 108610"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2025-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143724868","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Global inequalities in countries' demand for raw materials: Twenty years of expansion and insufficient convergence","authors":"Juan Antonio Duro ,&nbsp;Noemí Ramirez ,&nbsp;Hanspeter Wieland ,&nbsp;Dominik Wiedenhofer ,&nbsp;Helmut Haberl","doi":"10.1016/j.ecolecon.2025.108600","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecolecon.2025.108600","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Understanding global patterns of resource use and their underlying drivers is crucial for environmental sustainability. Because production and consumption are globally highly interconnected, dynamic, and unequally distributed, examinations of changes in cross-country differences in resource use can shed light on questions of development, equity, and responsibility for environmental pressures.</div><div>We here examine changes in the worldwide inequality of countries' per-capita material footprint (MF_pc) over the last 20 years from 2000 to 2019, using inequality measures that enable us to apply novel decomposition techniques of their driving factors. The MF accounts for the raw material extraction occurring anywhere on the planet to provide each country's population with goods and services consumed per year, thereby accounting for raw materials “embodied” in traded goods and services. Data for 146 countries from 2000 to 2019 is sourced from the multi-regional input-output database GLORIA. Using established inequality indices (Gini, Theil), we find that inequalities decreased until 2010, after which they remained relatively stable. This latter decade was characterized by a steep increase in overall global resource use. We also find that improvements in resource efficiency have not been sufficient to counter-balance increases in GDP.</div><div>Our results suggest that the last twenty years – in particular, the last decade – can be described as an “expansion and insufficient convergence” trajectory which falls short from the “Contraction and Convergence scenario” envisaged in strategies towards the Sustainable Development Goals.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51021,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Economics","volume":"234 ","pages":"Article 108600"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2025-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143697769","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":"Reducing the environmental impact of food consumption through fiscal policies: The case of Spain","authors":"María-José Gutiérrez,&nbsp;Belén Inguanzo,&nbsp;Susan Orbe","doi":"10.1016/j.ecolecon.2025.108596","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecolecon.2025.108596","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines the environmental impacts of human food consumption from an economic policy perspective, investigating how fiscal policy can mitigate the environmental footprints associated with this consumption. Focusing on carbon emissions (CF), water use (WF), and food loss and waste (FLW), the analysis uses Spain as a case study to estimate price elasticities of footprints (how footprints respond to a 1% price increase in each food category). Optimization techniques are applied to evaluate fiscal food policies based on social preferences for footprint mitigation. Main findings are: (i) increasing the price of specific food categories can lead to unintended increases in some footprints, (ii) generalized VAT increases have a moderate impact, with up to 3% reduction in CF and less than 0.5% reduction in WF and FLW for a 20pp VAT rise, (iii) optimal taxation and subsidy achieve greater reductions, with up to 18% in CF and 11% in WF when social preferences prioritize mitigation of CF and WF, respectively, and (iv) targeted policies may have nutritional trade-offs, such as reducing essential micronutrients or increasing unhealthy components such saturated fats and sodium, emphasizing the need for balanced policy design.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51021,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Economics","volume":"233 ","pages":"Article 108596"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2025-03-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143687357","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Improving biodiversity resilience requires both public and private finance: A life-cycle analysis of biodiversity finance","authors":"Jesper Beverdam ,&nbsp;Klaus Hubacek ,&nbsp;Bert Scholtens ,&nbsp;Frans Sijtsma","doi":"10.1016/j.ecolecon.2025.108607","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecolecon.2025.108607","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>There is a substantial ‘biodiversity financing gap’: each year, only about one sixth of the funding required for biodiversity conservation is actually provided. Most biodiversity financing is from public sources; less than one fifth is from private ones. However, the potential of private financing is huge and could help fill the biodiversity financing gap. We study how this might be achieved by using a life cycle analysis for biodiversity, identifying the various phases a stylized biodiversity restoration- or conservation project passes through. Public funding offers most potential in the early stages of a biodiversity project, when financing requirements are relatively low, but uncertainty is high. Private and blended finance demonstrate potential in later stages, when financing requirements are higher, but uncertainty is lower and return mechanisms have been established. We contribute theoretically by proposing a novel framework through which the financing options of biodiversity interventions can be considered. Practically, the framework assists in advancing the understanding of the field of funding possibilities for entities wishing to develop projects with the aim of conserving and/or restoring biodiversity.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51021,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Economics","volume":"234 ","pages":"Article 108607"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2025-03-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143685831","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Pay the polluter or polluter pays? A preliminary assessment of public preferences for water quality policy","authors":"Seojeong Oh ,&nbsp;Benjamin M. Gramig","doi":"10.1016/j.ecolecon.2025.108608","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecolecon.2025.108608","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>US agencies have long used the pay-the-polluter (PTP) approach in which government pays agricultural polluters to adopt conservation practices on a voluntary basis to address nutrient pollution. However, limited fiscal resources and continued poor water quality have led to calls for a new paradigm, the polluter-pays-principle (PPP), in which agricultural polluters must clean up their nutrient emissions. Whereas PTP relies on the public cost-sharing with farmers, PPP could induce food price increases that result from farm regulation. Little is known about the general public's preferences with respect to these paradigms. This paper addresses this gap using data from a randomized survey conducted in three US Corn Belt states that have significant agricultural nutrient pollution—Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa. We find that, overall, people favor the PPP approach over the existing PTP approach. Comparing PTP to PPP over a range of clean-up responsibilities, respondents are more likely to support PPP than PTP when given the choice of the most stringent PPP type. Examining specific PPP features, we find that assigning clean-up responsibilities equal to pollution source levels positively impacts support only PPP, while combining pollution trading with farm regulation has a negative impact on support for PPP.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51021,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Economics","volume":"233 ","pages":"Article 108608"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2025-03-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143687356","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":"Public policy for management of forest pests within an ownership mosaic","authors":"Andrew R. Tilman,&nbsp;Robert G. Haight","doi":"10.1016/j.ecolecon.2025.108602","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecolecon.2025.108602","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Urban forests provide ecosystem services that are public goods with local (shade) to global (carbon sequestration) benefits and occur on both public and private lands. Thus, incentives for private tree owners to invest in tree care may fall short of those of a public forest manager aiming to optimize ecosystem service benefits for society. The management of a forest pest provides a salient focus area because pests threaten public goods provision and pest management generates feedback that mitigates future risks to forests. We use a game theoretic model to determine optimal pest treatment subsidies for a focal privately owned tree and use an optimization approach to guide targeted public treatment of a representative public tree. We find that optimal public subsidies for private tree treatment depend on assessed tree health and on the prevalence of the pest in the community, considerations absent from many existing programs. Next, by applying our pest treatment policies to a community-scale model of emerald ash borer forest pest dynamics, we predict ash mortality under a range of treatment scenarios over a 50-year time horizon. Our results highlight how designing policies that consider the public goods benefits of private actions can contribute to sustainable land management.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51021,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Economics","volume":"234 ","pages":"Article 108602"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2025-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143675652","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}