Low Opportunity Cost Research Articles

Sustainable integration of insects into European food chains

Abstract The European Commission’s Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP) is a cornerstone of the European Green Deal, aiming for transition towards a more sustainable and circular economy by addressing waste reduction and promoting recycling of low-opportunity cost biomass. The EU Horizon 2020 project SUStainable INsect CHAIN (SUSINCHAIN) aligns with these goals, focusing on the efficient utilisation of insects in the food chain to strengthen sustainable supply chains, enhance consumer acceptance, and create market opportunities. The project, targeted at Technology Readiness Level 6, addresses barriers through comprehensive research, technology demonstrations, and stakeholder collaboration. Results contribute to scaling up the insect sector by overcoming supply and demand challenges, fostering trust, and developing best practices. The opinions generated encompass market opportunities, insect rearing, processing, safety, and sustainability, providing guidelines for stakeholders, public authorities, policymakers, and academia to collectively drive the growth and acceptance of the European insect sector.

Considerations for US coverage and reimbursement: Which digital health products to evaluate? Findings from a modified Delphi study.

The rapid growth of digital health tools, including digital applications, wearables, sensors, diagnostics, digital therapeutics (DTx), and prescription DTx, offers new ways to treat patients and close gaps in care. Payers need transparent, credible, and efficient processes to differentiate products for potential reimbursement from the larger universe of digital health products. To identify areas of agreement, disagreement, and rationale for payers to determine which digital health products should be evaluated for formulary consideration and to develop generalizable criteria for health care decision-makers developing policies and approaches for digital health products. Experts from the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy DTx Advisory Group Payer Evaluation subcommittee rated whether a pharmacy and therapeutics committee, health technology assessment group, or an innovation center within a health plan or pharmacy benefit manager should consider 14 hypothetical products for potential formulary coverage. Using a 4-step modified Delphi approach, experts rated whether it was appropriate for a payer to evaluate each product on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 9 (strongly agree). Quantitative agreement was assessed using terciles of responses, medians, and the distribution of appropriateness scores. The corresponding discussions are summarized to identify generalizable criteria for payers to consider as they develop approaches to determine which digital health products to evaluate. Among the 14 hypothetical products, 4 achieved quantitative agreement that payers should evaluate the product. 5 products had quantitative disagreement, and the remaining were indeterminant. Payers were most likely to review a product if it (1) was reviewed by the US Food and Drug Administration, (2) required a prescription, (3) was intended to be paid for using premium dollars, (4) treated rather than diagnosed or monitored a clinical condition, (5) had a low clinical opportunity cost, and (6) could address population health metrics. The rapid availability of digital health and DTx options can be daunting for health care decision-makers when determining which products to evaluate. These generalizable criteria can help payers develop a more efficient process.

China’s public international investment: A strategic-trade-policy perspective

Initiatives such as the Belt and Road initiative reduce trade costs, increase export firms’ profits and stimulate their activities in R&D contests. The resulting strategic-trade policy equilibria tend to be asymmetric. One country earns leadership in the markets for exports to the rest of the world. Factors that are conducive for a country to gain the role of major innovator and exporter nation are: (1) whether a nation follows a ‘national champions’ policy compared to a rigorous national anti-trust policy, (2) whether a nation has a large pre-existing export sector, (3) whether the government places a high welfare weight on the profits of the firms in its country, and (4) whether the government has low opportunity costs of such investment policies. Piecemeal evidence suggests that, compared to the US, China has the advantages in all these four dimensions.

Cost‐effective use of abandoned agricultural land for biofuel production

AbstractBiofuel can be used to abate greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector, by replacing fossil fuel. To avoid the problem of competition with food production, the use of abandoned agricultural land (AAL) for production of the feedstock for biofuel has been proposed. AAL has generally low productivity but has also low opportunity costs, and production of perennial bioenergy crops on it can lead to carbon sequestration. A spatially explicit optimization model of biofuel production and transport fuel consumption, applied to Sweden, was used for an analysis of how AAL can alter costs for greenhouse gas emissions abatement. Results show that, compared to the case without AAL, AAL could decrease the costs of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 29%, for emissions reductions equivalent to 50% of current emissions from gasoline in Sweden. The carbon sequestration from establishing perennial bioenergy crops on AAL is the main driver of the positive results. High carbon sequestration on AAL implies larger emissions reduction for a given volume of biofuel, and the results show that the total biofuel production can be both smaller and larger with AAL. The use of arable land for biofuel production is generally smaller with AAL, but larger at some of the highest analyzed target levels. The low AAL feedstock costs contribute to lower costs of the total biofuel production, which pushes for more total biofuel production and less fuel use reduction and therefore counteracts the reduced use of arable land.

Dynamic marine spatial planning for conservation and fisheries benefits

AbstractThe increasing global demand for marine resources raises concerns about sustainable resource management and biodiversity conservation. Spatial closures, such as marine protected areas, can be valuable tools for maintaining and restoring exploited populations. When these spatial closures adopt a dynamic nature being adapted to the changing environment, they can effectively account for factors such as shifting species distributions, which enhances their potential to achieve ecological and socio‐economic objectives. Here, we adapted a decision‐support tool (the software Marxan), typically used for selecting static and permanent areas, to produce management recommendations that integrate permanent and temporal closures to fisheries. Our aim was to compare the outputs of a static network of permanent no‐take reserves with four other dynamic scenarios, including permanent and temporal closures that account for seasonal variations in the populations of species. All scenarios prioritized sites for the conservation of one of the most valuable European fishing stocks, the Norway lobster (Nephrops norvegicus). Additionally, we considered 12 other commercially exploited species captured by the Norway lobster fishery. The assessed outputs included retained biomass, area extent, closure type (permanent and seasonal) and opportunity costs within each scenario. We observed that all dynamic scenarios required fewer management areas permanently closed than the static scenario. This resulted in a lower opportunity cost for fisheries but also a higher capacity for biodiversity conservation. Therefore, complementing permanent with temporal closures could enhance biodiversity conservation and fisheries management. The novel dynamic planning method presented here could be applicable to other species, ecosystems and socio‐economic contexts.

The motivating and mobilizing effects of inequality on civil conflict: Focusing on trade-induced labor market shocks

This article has two aims: (1) to identify the causal effect of income inequality on civil conflict and (2) to find the mechanism in which disadvantaged individuals can mobilize collective violence. Applying the Heckscher-Ohlin and Stopler-Samuelson theorems, this study hypothesizes that workers in land-rich countries – those who face contracted demand in the labor market and consequently a larger income disparity – will have a lower opportunity cost to engage in conflict as trade expands. Exploiting exogenous spatial variation in inequality due to the country’s factor endowment, together with time variation in tariffs arising from the economic liberalization, the work of this research documents a statistically significant and economically meaningful causal effect of inequality on civil conflict. Secondly, to identify the mobilizing effect of inequality, I test whether higher disparity in income distribution within an ethnic group breeds more rebellions initiated by the group. Esteban and Ray’s model claims that an increase in income inequality within an ethnic group makes collective violence more likely, because the poor within the group provide conflict labor, and the rich within the group provide resources for violence. By merging international census data that cover 115 million individuals from 221 ethnic groups with the groups’ conflict records, the analysis empirically identifies that when holding total ethnic income constant, within-group inequality that is proxied by the unemployment rate is strongly correlated with the group’s propensity to initiate armed conflicts. Shedding new light on the prevailing scholarly discord that exclusively chooses either one of class and ethnic cleavages as sources of intrastate violence, the findings of this study imply that if trade-induced labor market shocks increase within-group inequality, it motivates workers to participate in rebellions by lowering their opportunity cost of fighting and mobilizes ethnic collective violence by allowing the ethnic leaders to recruit combatants at a lower cost.

Leveraging the Potential of Large Language Models in Education Through Playful and Game-Based Learning

This perspective piece explores the transformative potential and associated challenges of large language models (LLMs) in education and how those challenges might be addressed utilizing playful and game-based learning. While providing many opportunities, the stochastic elements incorporated in how present LLMs process text, requires domain expertise for a critical evaluation and responsible use of the generated output. Yet, due to their low opportunity cost, LLMs in education may pose some risk of over-reliance, potentially and unintendedly limiting the development of such expertise. Education is thus faced with the challenge of preserving reliable expertise development while not losing out on emergent opportunities. To address this challenge, we first propose a playful approach focusing on skill practice and human judgment. Drawing from game-based learning research, we then go beyond this playful account by reflecting on the potential of well-designed games to foster a willingness to practice, and thus nurturing domain-specific expertise. We finally give some perspective on how a new pedagogy of learning with AI might utilize LLMs for learning by generating games and gamifying learning materials, leveraging the full potential of human-AI interaction in education.

What happened to the workshop of West Africa? Resilience and decline of handicraft textiles in colonial northern Nigeria, 1911–52

AbstractThe Sokoto Caliphate of northern Nigeria was the workshop of West Africa in the pre‐colonial nineteenth century, producing famous blue‐black cloth that reached many markets south of the Sahara as well as across it. Under British colonial rule this large handicraft textile industry was faced with the winds of foreign competition. We rely on a newly digitized set of colonial district reports to measure the impact of trade on northern Nigerian textile manufacturing and find that (contrary to British expectations) areas closer to railway stations were less likely to experience industrial decline. We argue that the resilience of local textiles relied on the low opportunity cost of dry‐season labour. Analysing a piece of tax microdata, we show that a low opportunity cost of labour outside of the rainy season was associated with a higher likelihood of engaging in textile by‐employment. Seasonal changes in relative factor prices were a trap as well as a refuge. Part‐time employment limited specialization and technological innovation, and can help to explain why northern Nigerian textiles eventually declined. Thus, beyond our particular case study, these results contribute to our understanding of the role of seasonality in determining the structure and pace of development of tropical economies.

Multi-objective optimization of rainwater infiltration infrastructures along an urban–rural gradient

Many cities are developing infiltration infrastructures aimed at restoring natural hydrological processes. Among those, Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) can generate co-benefits, which contribute to cities’ adaptation to climate change. However, choosing optimal locations for infiltration infrastructures within limited available urban space is a complex spatial problem. It requires taking into account spatial patterns of infiltration potential as well as urban-rural gradients of costs and benefits. To address this, we apply a multi-objective optimization on a simple monocentric model city designed to give generic insights into location choices. We test a series of hypotheses: in comparison with a reference situation, we test the impact of the impossibility to infiltrate rainwater in city centers, the impact of substitution effects due to the presence of urban parks, and the possibility to mix NBS with grey infrastructures. The solutions reveal two polar strategies: locating infrastructures in the city center with higher co-benefits despite higher opportunity costs, or selecting suburban locations with the highest infiltration potential and lower opportunity costs - and a diversity of hybrid solutions. Substitution effects lead to discarding locations near urban parks, especially in centric locations. Finally, mixing NBS and grey infrastructures leads to a specialization of solutions by area and the potential to reach higher benefits at less opportunity costs.

Feed-food and land use competition of lowland and mountain dairy cow farms

Dairy cows and other ruminants contribute to human nutrition as they are able to convert feed components containing human inedible fibre concentrations (e.g. roughage and by-products from the food processing industry) into valuable animal-sourced food. A number of crops often fed to dairy cows (e.g. soy or cereals) are however potentially edible by humans too. Additionally, land used to grow dairy cattle feed may compete with crop production for human consumption. Two different methods to assess the competition between feed consumption of dairy cows and human food supply were thus refined and tested on 25 Swiss dairy farms. With respect to the potential human edibility of the feeds used in dairy production, the human-edible feed conversion ratio (eFCR) was applied. The land use ratio (LUR) was used to relate the food production potential, per area of land utilised, with the dairy production output. Low to medium eFCR, with values ranging from 0.02 to 0.68 were found, as an average proportion of 0.74 of total DM intake consisted of roughage. In contrast, we found relatively high LUR (0.69–5.93) for most farms. If the land area used to produce feed for cows was used for crop production (applying a crop rotation), 23 of the 25 farms could have produced more edible protein and all farms more human-edible energy. Indicator values strongly depend on the underlying scenarios, such as the human-edible proportion of feeds or the suitability of land and climate for crop production. Reducing the amount of human-edible feeds in dairy farming by feeding by-products from the food processing industry and improving forage quality may be suitable strategies to reduce eFCR, but relying on low-opportunity cost feeds may restrict milk performance level per cow. On farm level, improving overall efficiency and therefore using less land (especially area suitable for crop production) per kg product decreases LUR. However, the most promising strategy to mitigate land use competition may be to localise dairy production to land areas not suitable for crop production. Both methods (eFCR and LUR) should be used in parallel. They offer an opportunity to holistically evaluate the net contribution of dairy production to the human food supply under different environmental conditions and stress the importance of production systems well suited to specific farm site characteristics.

Comparing the Costs of Online and Teacher-Directed Credit Recovery

This study compares the costs of a school-based online credit recovery model to more traditional teacher-directed credit recovery using rigorous cost analysis methods. Findings indicate that differences in the comprehensive costs for online and teacher-directed credit recovery classes are small. However, cost differences across the two models of specific types of resources are substantial and statistically significant. Online credit recovery classes resulted in higher district-incurred costs largely due to the purchase of online curricula and required technology. The online model incurred lower opportunity costs to teachers stemming from less out-of-class time devoted to grading, lesson planning, and developing course materials.

How to design multifunctional landscapes?

Abstract The expansion of homogeneous landscapes has been a major driver of biodiversity loss, climate change and land degradation. There is an urgent need for a transition to multifunctional landscapes that provide abundant and nutritious food while also delivering several other contributions essential for a good quality of life. However, implementing this process, especially in large‐scale agriculture without economic subsidies, remains unclear. We discuss guidelines for a transition to multifunctional landscapes based on science and our experience as practitioners. In this transition, practitioners manage crop fields, natural habitats and field edges. We propose an iterative process for designing multifunctional landscapes. Initially, at a fine‐scale resolution, we identify and classify areas with low opportunity costs (e.g. low crop productivity) or a high appreciation for nature (e.g. near housing areas). These areas are categorized into either ‘wide’ patches or ‘narrow’ corridors (i.e. edges <100 m wide). Subsequently, wide patches (including those with remnants of native species regardless of size) are allocated for natural habitat restoration (covering at least 20% of the farmland), while narrow zones are designated as biological corridors (making up at least 10% of the farmland and designed to be 50–100 m wide). Also, field size and configuration are redesigned to enhance the efficiency of agricultural practices and edge density. This entails creating smaller fields with strip cropping that follows environmental heterogeneity, instead of relying on large, squared monocultures. Ultimately, this design is continually refined through engagement with stakeholders, incorporating cost–benefit analyses, as well as a process of ongoing monitoring, evaluation and mutual learning. Synthesis and applications. We describe an iterative process by which large‐scale agriculture can support biodiversity and leverage nature's contributions to people while providing more nutritious food and stabilizing crop yields and profits. Multifunctional landscapes will be critical in achieving the targets of the Kunming‐Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework by 2030 and moving the world towards net‐zero emissions by 2050.

The Heterogeneous Effects of Multilevel Centers on Farmland Transfer: Evidence from Tai’an Prefecture, China

Land transfer is an important means to achieve agricultural scale production and improve land use efficiency, as well as an effective way to solve food security issues. Discussing the mechanism of how the multilevel urban centers affect rural farmland transfer can help understand the spatial heterogeneity characteristics of farmland transfer. It is helpful to provide more policy suggestions from the perspective of urban-rural spatial relations and achieve the goal of agricultural and rural modernization. Taking Tai’an prefecture as an example, this study examines the impact of multilevel urban centers on farmland transfer by mediating effect model. The results show that: (1) Distances to urban centers are negatively associated with rural farmland transfer rates, with lower rates farther from urban centers. There are two mechanisms about how the distances to urban centers influence farmland transfer: the first is that the farther a village is from urban centers, the lower the value of its farmland, which leads to lower benefits to those who transferring farmland; the second is that lower opportunity costs of agricultural labor in the villages which farther from cities increase household reliance on farmland, reducing the rates of transferring farmland out. (2) Multilevel centers differentially influence transfers. The higher-level prefectural centers affect farmland transfer through planting structure, while the lower-level county centers affect farmland transfer through off-farm employment. Additionally, the influence of county centers is less stable due to road accessibility. (3) It is critical to additional policy support to both towns and remote villages. Particular focus should be placed on increasing the non-agricultural industries and expanding the agricultural markets of towns. It is also important to enhance infrastructure development to encourage farmland transfer in remote villages.

Climate Policy and Strategic Operations in a Hydro-Thermal Power System

Decarbonisation of the Nordic power sector entails substantial variable renewable energy (VRE) adoption. While Nordic hydropower reservoirs can mitigate VRE output’s intermittency, strategic hydro producers may leverage increased flexibility requirements to exert market power. Using a Nash-Cournot model, we find that even the current Nordic power system could yield modest gains from strategic reservoir operations regardless of a prohibition on “spilling” water to increase prices. Instead, strategic hydro producers could shift generation from peak to offpeak seasons. Such temporal arbitrage becomes more attractive under a climate package with a €100/t CO2 price and doubled VRE capacity. Since the package increases generation variability, lowers average prices, and makes fossil-fuelled plants unprofitable, strategic hydro producers face lower opportunity costs in shifting output from peak to off-peak seasons and encounter muted responses from price-taking fossil-fuelled plants. Hence, a climate package that curtails CO2 emissions may also bolster strategic hydro producers’ leverage.

LCA to evaluate the environmental opportunity cost of biological performances in finfish farming

PurposeMortality and suboptimal biological performance are a widespread problem in finfish farming. The associated losses constitute an environmental opportunity cost that needs to be thoroughly assessed to prioritize actions aiming at reducing the environmental impacts of finfish aquaculture. We here propose and demonstrate the use of a new parameterized and consequential LCA model of sea-trout production designed to assess the environmental opportunity costs of suboptimal biological performances, considering distinct mortalities and biological feed conversion ratios (FCRs) along the rearing process.MethodsPrimary data was collected in Danish and Italian farms to reconstitute the whole production process for sea-reared trouts. The level of detail allowed us to divide this production into seven different growth stages for which mortality and biological FCR can be assessed and modified. Excretion and valorization of fish sludge were modeled with a calibrated mass-balance model. Together with fish sludge, dead fish was modeled as valorized by anaerobic digestion. The foreground system was linked to the consequential version of ecoinvent 3.8 for which the embedded uncertainty was considered in Monte Carlo simulations. The model was used to assess the current environmental opportunity costs and evaluate the effect of losses happening at different timings along the rearing process.Results and discussionResults showed a low environmental opportunity cost for the current mortality rate of 5% as suppressing this mortality decreased impacts by 3.5 to 5% across impact categories. Decreasing the biological FCR decreased the environmental impacts proportionally. The timing of the losses was shown to greatly influence the environmental opportunity cost, and the same mortality rate happening in the late stages had substantially more impact than in the first stages. The valorization of the dead fish showed a negligible contribution to the reduction of impacts in the current system but showed a substantial contribution in the case of higher mortalities, such as observed for other farms and foreseen in the future.ConclusionThe model demonstrated that assessing an opportunity cost by multiplying the lost biomass by a unique impact factor constitutes an oversimplification neglecting the losses timing and the fact that fish biomass is not a marketable product. Even though the current environmental opportunity cost for losses appeared neglectable, suboptimal biological FCR should be tackled. The model and approach can be used to project trout farming within future disease regimes and assess the trade-offs regarding fish health issues and new treatments and practices.

Review: Composition and utilisation of feed by monogastric animals in the context of circular food production systems.

Food production has a major impact on environmental emissions, climate change and land-use. To reduce this impact, the circularity of future food production systems is expected to become increasingly important. In a circular food system, crop land is primarily used for plant-based food production, while low-opportunity cost feed materials (LCF), i.e. crop residues, co-products of the food industry, grass from marginal land and food waste form the basis of future, animal feeds. Animal diets thus contain much less cereals and soybean meal and include a higher proportion of diverse co-products, residues and novel human-inedible ingredients. These diets are characterised by a lower starch content, and a higher content of fibre, protein, fat, and phytate compared to present diets. In this review, possible consequences of the development towards a more circular food system for the type, volume and nutritional characteristics of feed materials and complete feeds are addressed and related research questions in the area of animal nutrition, physiology and metabolism are discussed. Additional attention is given to possible effects on intestinal health and gut functionality and to (bio)technological processing of LCF to improve their suitability for feeding farm animals, with a focus on the effects in pigs and poultry. It is concluded that an increased use of LCF may limit the use of presently used criteria for the efficiency of animal production and nutrient utilisation. Development of characteristics that reflect the efficacy and efficiency of the net contribution of animal production in a circular food system is required. Animal scientists can have an important role in the development of more circular food production systems by focussing on the optimal use of LCF in animal diets for the production of animal-source food, while minimising the use of human-edible food in animal feed.

Exploring the distribution of organic farming: Findings from certified rice in Taiwan

There has been increased attention to organic agriculture's behavioral and spatial implications. However, research on the dynamics and diffusion of green knowledge among farmers after controlling large-scale certified fields and environmental variables in small peasant nations has yet to be thoroughly examined. This study presents empirical evidence to explore whether there is a spatial dependence on organic agriculture and identifies the critical elements for organic rice distribution in Taiwan. We utilized spatial analysis to assess and control the potential spatial correlations. There appears to be a neighborhood effect on certified areas per farm, indicating that the geographical spillover effect confers a natural advantage on organic cultivation. Additionally, our results showed that organic rice cultivation in Taiwan is likely to occur in agriculturally less-favored regions and water conservation zones, bolstering the idea that farmers in areas with less potential have lower opportunity costs and are more inclined to adopt organic farming. Sequential or simultaneous shocks to the natural productivity levels of farmland and improvements in inundation, strata subsidence, and landslides would benefit the certified area. The negative impact of the increase in the shortest distance from industrial zones raises possible concerns about conflict between industrial and agricultural sustainability for policy reference.

Gender gap decomposition in employment rate of young people

Differences in behavior between women and men have long been observed in the labor market. Occupational segregation, lack of equal opportunities and lower wages are still linked to the lower opportunity cost that leaving the labor market implies for women. In this paper we analyze, using decomposition techniques, the gap in the employment rate between young women and men. These techniques allow us to separate the weight of observed characteristics from the weight of preferences or unobserved factors. Our results reveal that both types of factors are relevant in the gender gap in the employment rate. Preferences or unobserved factors, such as the different perception that both genders have of family and involvement of women in housework, which leads to greater female labor abandonment, are likely to be behind the gender gap in the case of already having job.

Carbon storage in tree biomass dispersed in pastures in the arid Caribbean region of Colombia

Aim of study: To determine the importance in terms of carbon sequestration of dispersed trees in pasture lands as a greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation measure. Area of study: The study was carried out in the municipality of Agustin Codazzi (Cesar Department, Colombia), between October 2020 and March 2021. Material and methods: We characterized 43.57 hectares dispersed amongst sixteen plots and all trees with a diameter at breast height > 10 cm were measured. Allometric equations were used to estimate aboveground biomass storage and species were classified in terms of use: timber products (TP) and non-timber products (NTP). Main results: A total of 750 trees were registered, 10 families and 28 species, of which NTP and TP represented 60.71% and 32.1% respectively. Aboveground carbon stock in trees in pastures was estimated at 7.15 + 4.8 Mg C ha-1. The most abundant species were Guazuma ulmifolia Lam. and Albizia saman (Jacq.) Merr. Research highlights: NTP species present a high potential for carbon storage and provide livestock assets. Placing value on carbon storage in rangelands can offset the low opportunity cost of trees in pastures by providing incentives for carbon storage, conservation, and recovery of threatened species.

Optimal pricing strategy for electric vehicle battery swapping: Pay-per-swap or subscription?

Electric vehicles (EVs) contribute to carbon emission reduction, but the limitations of existing charging technologies impose a bottleneck to their further diffusion. Addressing the root issues of long waiting time and range anxiety, battery swapping demonstrates great market potential. A swapping service provider may choose between two pricing strategies based on battery rental: pay-per-swap and subscription. This study establishes a game-theoretical model to portray a simplified EV replenishment market including one charging station, one swapping station, and one battery renter, and explores the optimal pricing strategy. To capture the influence of consumer preferences, the model considers high versus low opportunity cost of time. In either scenario, consumers choose between charging and swapping to maximize surplus utility. Equilibrium prices, demands, and profits under pay-per-swap and subscription strategies are obtained through backward induction. The results indicate that pricing strategy choice-making hinges on provider-side operating cost, battery depreciation and reserve size, as well as consumer-side time sensitivity and opportunity cost. Numerical and extended analyses suggest that the subscription strategy is conducive to initial market development, whereas the more consumer-friendly pay-per-swap strategy is preferred afterwards.