A circular economy (CE) would reduce both extraction and disposal by encouraging green design and circular business models, as well as repair, reuse, remanufacturing, and recycling. The CE started among architects and engineers, with little interest among economists. This article introduces CE concepts to economists, introduces key insights about the CE from other disciplines, and describes how economists can use these insights for a more complete economic analysis of policies that can better improve human welfare. An economic model of CE behavior can benefit from understanding the environmental gains from green designs based on engineering,transaction-cost savings from information based on blockchain technology, life cycle assessments based on industrial ecology, and behavioral science concepts of cultural barriers and social decision making that affect how producers and consumers respond to incentives. With various disciplines brought to bear on the subject, the combined analysis can exceed the sum of its parts.

中文翻译：

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向经济学家介绍循环经济


循环经济 （CE） 将通过鼓励绿色设计和循环商业模式以及维修、再利用、再制造和回收来减少开采和处置。CE 始于建筑师和工程师，经济学家对此兴趣不大。本文向经济学家介绍了 CE 概念，介绍了其他学科对 CE 的关键见解，并描述了经济学家如何利用这些见解对可以更好地改善人类福利的政策进行更完整的经济分析。CE 行为的经济模型可以受益于了解基于工程的绿色设计带来的环境收益、基于区块链技术的信息带来的交易成本节省、基于工业生态学的生命周期评估以及影响生产者和消费者如何应对激励措施的文化障碍和社会决策的行为科学概念。由于涉及与该主题相关的各种学科，综合分析可能会超过其各部分的总和。