Our paper investigates productivity, output growth and total factor productivity (TFP) growth using a novel single-index smooth-coefficient stochastic frontier approach and two firm-level datasets respectively from the high technology (high-tech) manufacturing and Knowledge Intensive Business Services (KIBS) sectors in Norway. The approach considers input productivity and technical inefficiency to

We analyze emissions and associated damages from the top 100 industrial CO2 emitters in the EU using data from the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register, the EU Transaction Log, population grids, and regional information. These top emitters account for 19% of total EU CO2 emissions, 39% of industrial CO2 emissions, as well as a third of industrial SOx and NOx emissions, and a significant

Smallholder oil palm farmers have been pivotal in Indonesia's Crude Palm Oil (CPO) production for decades. However, their plantations' productivity lag behind private and government estates. Moreover, these farmers often resort to unsustainable practices. Replanting presents a viable solution to enhance sustainability by bolstering yields and mitigating harmful practices. The Indonesian government

Research on degrowth and its policy proposals has rapidly expanded, despite lacking empirical evidence on public perceptions. One conceptual proposition for affluent populations is that lifestyle changes, such as undertaking sufficiency-oriented behaviours, may engender degrowth policy support. Our research empirically investigated U.S. public support for degrowth policies, its relation to sufficiency

Social comparison nudges, known to bring about behavioral change, rely on providing information to agents about other agents' decisions or expectations regarding specific actions. Although the procedure consists in transmitting true information, it classically implies a reduction of the transmitted reality: the information provided about others is an average, a proportion, a percentile. What would

In a natural field experiment conducted in a big grocery chain in Armenia, we test the impact of demand-side behavioral (an environmental nudge) and conventional (financial bonus scheme) policies to curb the purchase of single-use plastic bags. We find that both interventions are effective to reduce the demand for single-use plastic bags. Furthermore, the financial bonus scheme is more powerful than

Circular economy (CE) can drive our society towards sustainable development. An adequate policy landscape is considered among the most effective ways to encourage firms to adopt circularity. However, there is little clarity as to the most effective public policies to push companies towards implementing this concept. This is particularly challenging in the European Union, where these policies are fragmented

This paper draws on network analysis to examine the impact of Global Value Chain (GVC) embeddedness on carbon emissions from 2000 to 2014. A country network of value added is constructed, and a Temporal Network Autocorrelation Model (TNAM) is applied to examine the impact of network position in the GVC and emissions of network partners on the CO2 emissions of a country. The paper finds weak evidence

This article creates an inter-epistemic dialogue between degrowth and Buen Vivir/sumak kawsay based on qualitative research conducted in Ecuador. It builds on degrowth scholarship that considers cultural change an integral part of sustainability transformations. The article envisions what that change could look like by developing non-anthropocentric and de-individualised visions of sustainability transformations

We examine how a better understanding of how climate change induces herder migration to other locations and subsequent conflicts with sedentary farmers influences respondents' support for policies that accommodate outgroup members. We conducted a pre-registered survey experiment with 550 residents of a conflict zone in Nigeria and discovered that as perceived herder vulnerability due to climate change

As the significant environmental, social, and economic consequences of biodiversity loss become more clearly recognized, biodiversity management has become an increasingly important issue for the financial sector. According to the Global Risk Report 2023, biodiversity loss will be the fourth most significant risk worldwide over the next ten years. The financial sector plays a crucial role in supporting

Two approaches are predominant in climate models: cost–benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis. Cost–benefit analysis maximizes welfare, finding a trade-off between climate damages and emission abatement costs. By contrast, cost-effectiveness analysis minimizes abatement costs, omits damages but adds a climate constraint, such as a radiative forcing constraint, a temperature constraint or a cumulative

Motivated by the emphasis on securing property rights as an important tool for the efficient allocation of resources, including land and labour, we use three rounds of China Rural Household Panel Survey data to assess the impact of a land certification programme (LCP) on the labour and land allocation in rural China. We find that the LCP results in increased rural–urban migration, more active land

This paper contributes to the political economic analysis of industrial forestry in the Global North (GN) by introducing and applying elements of an analytical framework for extractivist valorization. The proposed framework serves as a complement, systematization, and extension of the concepts of valorization and (post-fossil) extractivism. It scrutinizes the political-economic constellation and social

Understanding the drivers of participation in conservation programs is essential for successful efforts to preserve nature in Latin America. By identifying these factors, we can bolster the long-term effectiveness of such initiatives in the region, particularly given that much of the biodiversity resides on private lands. Whereas extensive research has explored landowner participation in developed

Recall biases in retrospective self-reported survey data have important implications for empirical research. We leverage the survey design literature and test three strategies to attenuate mental anchoring in retrospective data collection: question ordering, retrieval cues and aggregate (community) anchoring. We focus on maize production and happiness reports among smallholder farmers in Malawi. Asking

Efforts to improve the Genuine Savings, a widely accepted index to assess the weak sustainability of an economy's development, have led to the creation of a broad body of literature that aims to produce more robust macroeconomic indicators for policy decision making. However, the various approaches to natural capital welfare accounting results in conflicting indicators of change. It is also the case

As the overall demand for wood-based products continues to grow, questions arise on how local wood resources and industry characteristics can effectively meet this growing demand. In the European Union (EU) 550 million m3 of wood is harvested annually, and is to a large extent processed by the wood industry. Little is known about the interplay between industrial capacity and the regional availability

Strengthening pro-environmental behavior, as well as understanding its drivers, is crucial for the fight against global warming. In this study, we (i) shed light on the behavioral determinants of pro-environmental efforts and (ii) explore the potential of information provision (about others’ efforts) to shape pro-environmental behavior. US citizens (n=782) in our online experiment are given the opportunity

This paper identifies market failure caused by an animal welfare externality that occurs if private animal friendliness falls short of social animal friendliness. Efficiency is restored by taxing the quantity of animal food and subsidizing the quality per unit of animal food. With consumer and producer heterogeneity, a promising policy includes mandatory quality standards. If a producer wants to be

The single-site travel cost model is a method typically used to estimate the recreational value of open-access natural areas. However, when utilised at sites where multiple ecosystem types are present, the proportion of value that is generated by each ecosystem can be unclear. Natural capital frameworks, such as the UN's System of Environmental-Economic Accounting, require values that are ecosystem

Focusing on biodiversity risks, we perform an empirical asset pricing analysis and document three main results. First, the factor going long on low biodiversity intensity assets and short on high biodiversity intensity ones as well as the factors based on the biodiversity intensity subcomponents (land use, greenhouse gases—GHG, air pollution, and water pollution) have heterogeneous dynamics but are

In this paper, through the reaction of corporate bonds, we investigate the relationship between biodiversity and companies. With a focus on acute events, we measure biodiversity loss as a risk. After introducing a novel news-based metric to track biodiversity risk and identify key acute episodes we propose an event study to measure the market effect of acute biodiversity events on the spreads of Brazilian

Promoting household-level adaptation measures is an important part of climate change adaptation policies to reduce vulnerability to droughts for (agro-)pastoral communities in sub-Saharan Africa. To develop effective supportive policies, it is important to get a better understanding of the needs in the communities. In this study, we, therefore, present the results of a discrete choice experiment in

We quantitatively assess the impacts of Downgrading Protected Areas (PAD) on biodiversity in the U.S. Results show that PAD events significantly reduce biodiversity. The proximity to PAD events decreases the biodiversity (abundance) by 26.0 % within 50 km compared with records of species further away from the PAD events. We observe an overall 32.3 % decrease in abundance after those nearest PAD events

We generalize the marginal abatement cost function concept by adding a secondary market option for the firm's emissions. From that baseline, we analyze the conditions under which the secondary market will lie dormant and strategies for efficiently activating them. We feature two contexts that are of increasing interest in the engineering and energy literatures but that are under-discussed in the economics

Can climate accords based on decentralized and voluntary agreements successfully reduce carbon emissions? We designed an economic experiment to study the effectiveness of the best-known mechanisms to foster international cooperation on climate change mitigation: climate pledges, financial penalties, and peer evaluation. We test each mechanism both separately and together. In the climate pledge treatments

Increasing landfill and environmental costs are driving municipalities to search for effective policies to change household food waste disposal, balancing competing attributes such as effectiveness, fairness and feasibility. In order to better understand households' policy perspectives, we conducted an online survey with 1520 South Australians regarding four different food waste policies, namely: 1)

The ‘social provisioning process’ framework postulates that making provisioning processes more socially and ecologically sustainable requires structural changes in terms of the material, social, and cultural bases of economies. This paper explores the ways in which local community-led grassroots initiatives (GIs) contribute to such structural changes. The purpose of this paper is twofold: First, we

This paper introduces an analytical model that characterizes the incentives of the manufacturing industry, consumers, and waste management sectors in closing the material loop. To address identified market failures, various policy instruments are evaluated both theoretically and numerically, using the example of the EU PET market. The assessment shows that a policy package consisting of carbon pricing

The distinct characteristics of cooperatives, grounded in values such as self-help, selfresponsibility, etc. (ICA) make them a distinctive form of enterprise that necessitates examination. As other forms of enterprise, cooperatives bear the same onus of ensuring sustainability. To comprehend the social and economic contribution of cooperatives, we investigate their impact and role in attaining environmental

Seagrass habitats are essential and vulnerable ecosystems with several key roles, from biodiversity hotspots to climate change mitigation. Their characteristics, current condition and potential benefits, are the main core of this study which presents one of the first applications of marine accounts for the European Mediterranean Sea. The assessment focuses on four marine and coastal ecosystem services

In contrast to agricultural crops, long-term tree contract farming (CF) for high-quality timber production under sustainable forest practices contributes to social and economic development, as well as environmental conservation. However, there is limited understanding and insufficient literature on the motivations and benefits of tree growers participating in timber and its associated value chains

This article aims to advance understandings of food systems functioning at a national level and explore ways for its transformation towards sustainability and social justice. Integrating food regime theory from political economy with social metabolism from ecological economics, and surplus/reproduction from feminist economics, we develop a novel research framework which combines six dimensions—food

The confluence of multiple crises has prompted a growing recognition of the need for transformations. Economic systems, including patterns of consumption and production, play a key role in sustainability transformations. The notion that capitalist systems are at the root of current ecological and social crises has led to the emergence of different alternative economic discourses, that seek to address

Humanity faces a dilemma: The satisfaction of human needs gravely endangers the natural basis of life. As potential strategies for resolving this dilemma, we revisit the discourse on efficiency, sufficiency and consistency. Although there has been much discussion about the three strategies in recent decades, there is a lack of a clear distinction between the strategies and little understanding regarding

Ecological economics envisions problem-solving collaborative efforts characterized by disciplinary diversity and participants within and outside of research professions. Pursuit of its ambitious vision has led to ambiguity in terms of ecological economics' paradigms, methodology, and subject matter. There remains a need for comprehensive methodologies and for nuanced discussions of methodological pluralism

The 2007/8 economic crisis and the global Great Recession led to widespread turmoil and instability. In Europe, unprecedented reductions in per capita resource use were crisis-driven rather than the result of deliberate policies. This study examines material use patterns in the EU-27 from 2000 to 2020, covering the period before and the onset of the Great Recession. We find that average material consumption

In recent years, climate change and societal changes have increased the complexity of demands on multifunctional forest management, leading to new lines of conflict. Consequently, public forest management in particular seeks to improve communication and interaction with societal groups with which they previously have not been familiar. In our study, we apply the deliberative model of democracy to assess

Stumpage price fluctuates all the time, creating price uncertainty for timberland owners and managers in making harvest decisions. As Chang and Zhang (2023) suggested, this price uncertainty could be outsourced with a rolling put option method, i.e., purchasing American put options needed every year to partially cover the stumpage price uncertainty. However, implementing rolling put options every year

Worldwide, a variety of crises are affecting forests, which also contribute to mitigate crises effects. This article examines the question to what extent and under what conditions crises are drivers for policy change towards more ecological forest management. Based on an analytical model that links crises and policy change through actor-centred power (ACP), the formulation of new financing instruments

Reaching the UN's sustainable development goals (SDGs) is influenced by a country's position in global value chains and its involvement in international trade. Here, we assess how changes in global trade patterns (CGTP) during 2004 and 2014 impacted 13 SDG indicators in 141 countries/regions which are further divided into four income groups. Trade pattern is characterized by the direction, composition

The establishment of Forest Management Units (Kesatuan Pengelolaan Hutan/ KPH) represents one of Indonesia's most significant forest governance reforms, covering the 120 million hectares of designated Forest Areas. Sharing features with the Landscape Approach, KPHs are expected to reduce deforestation and forest degradation through improved forest planning, oversight, open access avoidance, and fire

Anthropogenic environmental impacts substantially threaten the sustainable development of cities and counties. This paper offers an original assessment of the role played by population, economic growth and technology change in the evolution of local air pollution and soil sealing, using the STIRPAT approach. The analysis covers the development of 367 German counties and autonomous cities (NUTS 3 level)

The increase in farmland prices in many parts of the world over the past decade has sparked discussions about whether non-farmers pay higher prices for farmland. This study uses a causal machine learning approach with a rich data set of land transactions in Germany to quantify the potential price premium paid by non-farmers. By applying the causal forest method, we uncover the heterogeneity of price

Tropical deforestation pressures remain high, but in some areas, forest cover persists, re-emerges, or even expands. Uncovering the driving factors of such a shift has incessantly focused on biophysical and economic development changes, especially at national and regional levels, but evidence on the role of governance remains case-based and inconsistent. This article investigates the role of community

The evolution of Forest Sector Models (FSMs) since the 1960s has marked a significant advancement in forest economics and policy analysis. However, this development is limited to North America and Europe's nations; tropical countries, crucial for biodiversity, carbon storage, and deforestation, face a notable scarcity of FSMs, often attributed to the limited and fragmented nature of their forest sector

This study examines the effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) on deforestation in non-OECD countries, in consideration of the potential trade-offs between economic objectives and environmental concerns and the pollution haven hypothesis. The study applies a multilevel fixed effects estimator to an original panel dataset of more than 4500 locations that received FDI across 120 countries between

Forest creation and restoration are embedded in global policy. Both result in landscape changes that have far-reaching socioeconomic consequences. However, there is limited evidence on public preferences for the biodiversity these forests contain. Here we used a choice experiment to explore the British public's willingness to pay (WTP) for different forest biodiversity attributes. We began with a multiple-step

Natural insurance based on the provision of ecosystem services is a promising tool for the future of agriculture. However, empirical evidence of the role it can play is lacking, and its integration into standard insurance strategies – for example, the use of pesticides or market-based insurance – has been understudied. To begin to fill this gap, this study developed an original conceptual framework

Climate change is one of the main threats for biodiversity. As it affects the ecological and economic system, conservation costs and impacts may change in a heterogeneous manner. This implies that cost-effective conservation sites and measures may no longer be so in the future. We investigate spatial flexibility (to adapt the location of conservation sites) and management flexibility (to adapt the

Agriculture will play a central role in meeting greenhouse gas (GHG) emission targets, as the sector currently contributes ∼22% of global emissions. Because emissions are directly tied to resources employed in farm production, such as land, fertilizer, and ruminant animals, the productivity of input use tends to be inversely related to emissions intensity. We review evidence on how productivity gains

This essay discusses three themes of my scholarly life from my student days up to today. They involve technological change, environmental accounting, and energy-climate-economic analysis. These themes have common analytical roots in the economic theory of public goods and encounter thorny issues of governance because of the Westphalian roots of international law and practice. Many of the issues, such

The focus of this review is the shadow economy (SE) in agriculture. Our research aim is to empirically quantify the SE in the agricultural sector based on data collected in the EU-15 member states from 1996 to 2019. We apply the multiple indicators multiple causes model to estimate the levels and development of the SE in these countries. Furthermore, we investigate how the size of the agricultural

Canada's dairy supply management system provides milk year-round but unnecessarily disposes of overproduction. A lack of transparent data on discarded milk means that the scale of this issue is unknown. This hinders actions to mitigate the potentially large environmental, economic and nutritional costs of avoidable, on-farm milk waste. Here we estimate the volume of surplus milk discarded on farms

Using data from a large representative survey, we document that consumers are very uncertain about the emissions associated with various actions, which may affect their willingness to reduce their carbon footprint. We then experimentally test two channels for the behavioral impact of such uncertainty, namely risk aversion about the impact of mitigating actions and the formation of motivated beliefs

Pre-fire mitigation efforts that include the installation and maintenance of fuel breaks are integral to wildfire suppression in Southern California. Fuel breaks alter fire behavior and assist in fire suppression at strategic locations on the landscape. However, the combined effectiveness of fuel breaks and wildfire suppression is not well studied. Using daily firefighting personnel to proxy the quantity

Ensuring water quality and equality are global goals for sustainable development. This study investigates how Egypt's income and expenditure inequalities affect households' internal grey water footprint (IGWF), i.e., domestic freshwater needed to assimilate pollutants discharged through producing products consumed domestically, allocating water pollution responsibility to final consumers based on their

Globally, there is a strong interest in investments in zero‑carbon technologies, e.g., in industry and the electricity generation sector, but projects supporting the climate transition are argued to be held back by environmental permitting challenges. For this reason, there are calls for novel regulatory reforms that broaden the scope of environmental permitting, and the underlying legal rules, by

This study aims to shed light on the impact of the crop diversity criterion of green payments on farms' economic and environmental performances, alongside land use practices. In order to provide causal evidence, we exploit the natural experiment from the 2013 Common Agricultural Policy reform, which established stronger crop diversity eligibility criteria for farmers with over 10 ha (and 30 ha) of