Research In Environmental Economics Research Articles

Shaping the Future of Environmental Economics: A Bibliometric Review of Current Trends and Future Directions

Environmental economics is increasingly pivotal in addressing global environmental challenges. This study aims to elucidate the research landscape in this field, focusing on prevalent themes such as climate change, carbon emissions, sustainable development, and environmental policy. Employing a bibliometric analysis, we analyzed a substantial corpus of literature from Scopus. We applied Lotka's Law to assess author productivity and distribution and conducted institutional and country-level analyses to map the geographical spread and institutional affiliations in environmental economics research. Our analysis highlights a significant growth in the environmental economics literature, with a notable focus on climate change and sustainability. A concentration of publications among a few authors was observed, indicating influential researchers and potential for increased collaboration. The rise in publications, particularly in China and leading journals like 'The Journal of Cleaner Production,' reflects a global upsurge in environmental economics research. Distinct clusters were identified, covering diverse topics from climate change economics to environmental policy. The study acknowledges limitations due to exclusive reliance on Scopus data, suggesting future research to include other databases like the Web of Science for a more comprehensive analysis. Considering the evolving nature of environmental challenges, we advocate for interdisciplinary approaches and continual updates in research to address emergent trends in this critical field.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Efficiency in Polish Agriculture

Analysis of the efficiency of greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture is an important part of agricultural and environmental economics research. The theme is extremely important due to the deepening problem of climate change and the simultaneous need to ensure food security. However, counteracting climate change cannot be achieved at the expense of reducing agricultural productivity. Due to the need to study the economic-environmental relationship in agriculture, the main purpose of this study was to assess the changes in the level and structure of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and to examine the changes in efficiency of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. The authors also estimated the relative efficiency of emissions, which allowed for comparing the efficiency of emissions between agriculture and other sectors of the national economy. Analyzing the changes in agricultural emissions efficiency, as well as changes in relative efficiency of emissions, is an indirect way of assessing whether the ongoing trends are consistent with the sustainable development concept and if the country is effective enough in mitigating climate change in relation to its economic performance. The research conducted showed that agriculture has a significant share of greenhouse gas emissions among all sectors of the Polish economy. However, greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture decreased by a total of 23.5% in the years studied. The most significant changes occurred in the context of greenhouse gas emissions from intestinal fermentation. The research also shows that the efficiency of emissions from agriculture more than doubled in the years examined. However, it decreased compared to other sectors of the economy in the country. This study was based on emissions data retrieved from National Inventory Reports prepared by the National Center for Emissions Management and on the Agricultural Statistical Yearbooks of the Central Statistical Office. This paper also proposes some examples of measures that could be taken to reduce agricultural emissions. Some of them include reducing food losses, sustainable use of fertilizers, increasing energy efficiency, and greater use of renewable energy.

Food Security and its Connection With Environmental Economics and Accounting: A Bibliometric Analysis

Objective: Map and present the state of the scientific art on food security and its connection with Economics and Environmental Accounting. Theoretical framework: The limits of economic use of ecosystem services were extrapolated, the evidence of which lies in climate change and subsequent heterogeneous food availability. From this perspective, the accounting and economic impacts of environmental changes are apparently underestimated by industrial chains that exploit natural capital. Method: A bibliometric analysis of scientific publications was carried out, that were prospected in the Scopus database. 377 scientific publications published between 1986 and 2023 were retrieved. The mining and analysis of the correlation between Economics and Accounting with food security was carried out based on of the co-occurrence of keywords indicated by the authors of the retrieved documents, using the VantagePoint® software. Results: The results of the bibliometric search show greater progress in research in environmental economics. Conversely, the gaps in the valuation of environmental assets, the absence of validated indicators for the inclusion of natural capital in national accounting systems and the voluntary nature of the disclosure of accounting, financial and socio-environmental data may be the explanations for the lack of connection between food safety and environmental accounting. Research implications: Scientific advances in the calculation of the Green Gross Domestic Product and/or in the adaptation of the SEEA (System of Environmental-Economic Accounts) methodology can generate accounting and economic data from the organization of stocks of environmental assets and favor the availability of food.

A Review of Research on Embodied Carbon in International Trade

Nowadays, how to reduce carbon emissions is a hot issue in environmental economics research, and countries around the world are having extensive discussions on their respective carbon emission obligations. The embodied carbon contained in international trade plays a crucial role in controlling pollutant emissions but it is often overlooked, resulting in problems such as carbon displacement and avoidance of responsibility for pollutant emissions. Based on the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) and Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCI-E) database, this paper adopts a bibliometric method to summarize 626 papers from 1994 to 2023 in six aspects, including the number of the literature, the literature citations, research region, journal, author, and research discipline. Meanwhile, the research method and model used in the collected papers are classified and reviewed. Then, this study briefly outlines the current status of embodied carbon emissions and the international pollutant identification laws and analyzes the shortcomings of existing research and the rationality of responsibility identification principles. Finally, we propose future research hotspots by combining carbon neutrality and carbon trading theory.

Does the high-speed railway make cities more carbon efficient? Evidence from the perspective of the spatial spillover effect

With the aggravation of carbon emissions and global warming, the probability of various natural disasters and environmental risks will increase significantly. Therefore, carbon emission reduction and low-carbon development have become the focus of environmental economic research. This paper uses the information about the opening of high-speed railway (HSR) in China to comprehensively explore the effect of infrastructure construction on urban carbon total factor productivity (CTFP) in China, which is calculated by the novel non-parametric method named biennial non-radial Luenberger productivity indicator (BLPI). Our results reveal that in China, an extra HSR line significantly improves the CTFP of local cities by 0.63%, while the CTFP of related surrounding cities increases by 6.3%. We confirm the robustness of our empirical findings and perform the mechanism analysis from several aspects. The mechanism analysis shows that the HSR improves the CTFP of local cities mainly via industrial upgrading and technological progress, and improves the CTFP of surrounding cities via industrial agglomeration and factor spillover. Besides, the impact of the HSR is more pronounced for the core cities, large cities, and innovative cities. Our results suggest that the HSR makes cities more carbon efficient, which is a non-negligible advantage of infrastructure construction in reducing environmental risks.

Does the frequency of stochastic convergence in per capita ecological footprint matter?

Among the environmental economics research issues, the issue of convergence has received quite a lot of attention, which is also known as stationary analysis. In this research strand, whether shocks to the time series variable are permanent or temporary is tested via the unit root tests. In this study, based on the theory and empirical works of stochastic convergence, we evaluate the convergence for the BASIC member countries, including Brazil, South Africa, India, and China. We use a variety of methodologies to see whether the convergence of ecological footprint holds for these countries or not. We first use the wavelet decomposition technique to decompose the series into the short run, middle run, and long run, and then we run several unit root tests to confirm the stationarity property of the series. The methodologies implemented in this study allow us to apply econometric tests to the original series as well as to the decomposed series. The results of panel CIPS test demonstrate that the null hypothesis of unit root could be rejected for the short run but not for the middle and long run, implying that long-lasting impact might prevail due to any shocks to the ecological footprint in the middle and long run. The results for individual countries varied.

Is the R&D Expenditure of Listed Companies Green? Evidence from China's A-Share Market.

Whether the company’s R&D expenditure has the green attribute is the focus of current environmental economics research. This paper empirically tests the relationship between R&D expenditure and CO2 emission intensity by taking Chinese A-share listed companies, from 2016 to 2020, as samples. The research found that the R&D expenditure of the company has a significant green effect of reducing its carbon dioxide emission intensity. Further research shows that the institutional investors play a mediating role in the relationship between R&D expenditure and CO2 emission intensity. And the “governance effect” of institutional investors is affected by “short-termism”, which leads to the “myopic” of enterprises’ management and urges them to invest in the short term, thus being detrimental to the company’s environmental performance. In addition, the green attribute of R&D expenditure only exists in the company which has a high concentration of institutional investors, indicating that the institutional investors possess the ability to identify the green value of R&D investment. Extended discussion shows that the investment of R&D personnel plays a moderating role in the first half path of the above mediating mechanism, which weakens the negative relationship between institutional investors and R&D investment. This paper provides empirical evidence for the government to improve environmental performance at the enterprise level. The results of this study show that, in order to reduce the CO2 emission intensity of enterprises, the government should improve incentives for enterprise R&D, make rational use of the information identification ability of institutional investors, advocate long-term investment philosophy, and strengthen the training of R&D team leaders and technicians.

Toward the Coming of Age of Environmental Economics Research in China

Karl-Gustaf Löfgrena, Chuan-Zhong LibAuthor informationa School of Economics, Umeå University, Umeå 901 87, Sweden b Department of Economics, Uppsala University, Uppsala 751 05, and The Beijer Institute,Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm 104 05, SwedenE-mail: Chuanzhong.Li@nek.uu.se (Chuan-Zhong Li, corresponding author)AbstractThis paper reviews some historical development and modern applicationsof the envelope theorems in economics from a static to a dynamic context. First, weshow ho

Adaptability Assessment and Analysis of Temporal and Spatial Differences of Water-Energy-Food System in Yangtze River Delta in China

Serving as an effective tool for research on regional sustainable development, adaptive management has become the subject of global climate change and environmental economic research nowadays. Based on the perspective of the adaptability of the composite system, this article decomposes the adaptability into four aspects: sensibility, stability, compatibility and sustainability. We use the pressure-state-impact-response (PSIR) model to construct a Comprehensive Index Evaluation System for the adaptability of the Water-Energy-Food System in the Yangtze River Delta from 2010 to 2019. Our analyses show that: Firstly, the adaptability of the Water-Energy-Food System in the Yangtze River Delta fluctuates greatly, with the lowest value being only 33.35% of the highest value. Secondly, while sensibility shows an “M-shaped” development trend, the stability, sustainability and compatibility of the Water-Energy-Food System in the Yangtze River Delta changes simultaneously, showing a “U-shaped” development trend as a whole. Thirdly, there exists significant spatial differences in the adaptability of the Water-Energy-Food System in the Yangtze River Delta. Zhejiang Province has the highest level of system adaptability, while Anhui Province has the lowest. Based on that, we recommend to strengthen the coordinated management of various departments and natural resources in the Yangtze River Delta and implement strict red lines for resource utilization and environmental protection.

Small Steps with Big Data: Using Machine Learning in Energy and Environmental Economics

This article reviews recent endeavors to incorporate big data and machine learning techniques into energy and environmental economics research. We find that novel datasets, from high frequency smart meter data to satellite images and social media data, are already used by researchers. At the same time most of the analyses rely on traditional econometric techniques. Nevertheless, we find applications of machine learning models that address the high dimensionality of the data and seek out new and better strategies for estimating heterogenous treatment effects. We provide an introduction to the main themes in machine learning, which are likely to be of use to economists in energy and environmental economics, and illustrate them using a real data example derived from an energy efficiency program evaluation. We provide the data and code in order to stimulate further research in this area.

Оценка вреда от нарушения природоохранного законодательства: обзор и систематизация методологических подходов и методического обеспечения

Damage from environmental pollution (damage from violation of environmental legislation) is a basic category in environmental-economic research and is assessed during the development of project documentation, environmental audit, evaluation assessment of the effectiveness of investment projects, environmental risks insurance. At the same time, variety of existing assessment approaches necessitates methodological and methods’ streamlining in the field under consideration. The purpose of the study is to review and systematize national and foreign experience in assessing damage from environmental pollution. Research methods: ecological-economic analysis, content analysis, information modeling, statistical analysis. The key findings of the study: identification of contradictions in the field of understanding and assessment of environmental pollution damage category, streamlining of methodological principles and methodology support in the field under consideration, development of approaches’ classification for calculating damage from pollution depending on the methods used and the directions of assessment, systematization of methodology support based on a wide range of criteria. Scope: environmental audit and expertise, environmental insurance, as well as regulatory documents of ministries (Ministry of natural resources, Ministry of ecology) and departments (Rostechnadzor, Rosvodresursy, etc.), scientific and educational publications on the assessment of anthropogenic load.

The Decomposition Analysis of Carbon Emissions: Theoretical Basis, Methods and Their Evaluations

As an analytical framework for studying the characteristics of changes in things and their action mechanisms, the decomposition analysis of greenhouse gas emissions has been increasingly used in environmental economics research. The author introduces several decomposition methods commonly used at present and compares them. The index decomposition analysis (IDA) of carbon emissions usually uses energy identities to express carbon emissions as the product of several factor indexes, and decomposes them according to different weight-determining methods to clarify the incremental share of each index, in which way it is possible to decompose the models that contain less factors, process time series data, and conduct cross-country comparisons. It mainly includes the Laspeyres index decomposition and the Divisia index decomposition. Among them, the LMDI I method has been widely used for its advantages such as generating no residuals and easy to use. The structural decomposition analysis (SDA) can be used to conduct a more systematic analysis, decompose models with more influencing factors, and analyze the impacts of various factors on emissions, but this method has higher requirements for data collection. The biggest difference between the SDA method and the IDA methods of carbon emissions is that the former is based on an input–output system, while the latter only needs to use sectors’ aggregate data.

Assessing global fisheries using Fisheries Performance Indicators: Introduction to special section

This special section of Marine Policy is devoted to applications of the Fisheries Performance Indicators (FPIs). The overall objective of these indicators is to provide a low cost, easily accessible and rapid assessment tool that measures an overall status of a particular fishery anywhere in the world where all three sustainability pillars; ecology, community, and economics are considered [2]. The eight case studies that follow this introduction are the result of a collaboration between researchers at the Institute for Sustainable Food Systems at the University of Florida, researchers and colleagues around the world and the Environment for Development (EfD) Global Hub at University of Gothenburg. EfD is a global network of environmental economics research centers aiming at effective management of the environment in the Global South. The rest of this introduction is organized in the following manner. The next section gives a brief introduction to FPIs, the third section provides a quick background to EfD, its Marine research program and how the FPIs were developed, Section 4 has an overview and some descriptive data from the 149 fisheries currently in the FPI data base, Section 5 gives an overview of the eight new case studies, and the last section concludes.

The Benefits and Pitfalls of Using Satellite Data for Causal Inference

AbstractThere has been growing interest in using satellite data in environmental economics research. This is because satellite data are available for any region across the globe, provide frequent d...

Making markets for private provision of ecosystem services: The Bobolink Project

Using the concept of PES, the Bobolink Project moves environmental economics research beyond measuring values and into the development of efficient markets to capture those values and maximize their ability to support ecosystem services (ES). Beginning in Rhode Island and then expanding to Vermont, the project employed a novel approach, where crowd-sourced pledges for ecosystem services were matched with landowner bids. Specifically, hayfield owners with nesting habitat for grassland birds were invited to participate in a uniform price auction to adopt “bird-friendly” haying practices in exchange for compensation. Simultaneously, private citizens were asked to engage in an innovative pledging process, inspired by Lindahl pricing, where funds would be used to compensate landowners. Resulting ES included viewscapes, flora, fauna and sounds generated from the contracted hayfields. After three pilot seasons supported by a research grant that resulted in 1089 acres of safe habitat for ground-nesting birds in Vermont, the project administration transitioned to Audubon Societies and expanded to include Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine, and New York. The success of the project suggests that this approach may be appropriate in other contexts where targeted ES include flagship species, and landowner-sellers can enter into contracts to deliver clearly-defined outcomes valued by donor-buyers.

Sustaining Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functions: Economic Issues, by Clement A.Tisdell. Published by Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, UK, 2015, pp. 426 pages. ISBN: 9781782544395, AU$175

Sustaining Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functions: Economic Issues, by Clement A.Tisdell. Published by Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, UK, 2015, pp. 426 pages. ISBN: 9781782544395, AU$175

The GTAP-Power Data Base: Disaggregating the Electricity Sector in the GTAP Data Base

Computable general equilibrium (CGE) models are ubiquitous in energy and environmental economic research. Recent technological advancements in electricity fuels, generation technologies, and environmental policies which target specific generation technologies (e.g. emission regulations) have motivated detailed CGE modeling of the electricity sector. Modeling these issues requires distinct electricity generating technologies in a CGE database. Researchers using the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) Data Base have disaggregated the electricity sector into generating technologies independently using largely disparate, incomparable methodologies. This paper presents the methodology used to create the GTAP-Power Data Base, an electricity-detailed extension of the GTAP 9 Data Base with the following disaggregated electricity sectors: transmission and distribution, nuclear, coal, gas, hydroelectric, wind, oil, solar, and other. Gas, oil, and hydroelectric are further differentiated as base and peak load. The “bottom-up” data are electricity generation and levelized input costs for each technology and region. The levelized input costs for each technology are estimated to be as close as possible to the original data, but consistent with the original GTAP 9 Data Base. Major limitations in the initial version of the GTAPPower Data Base are the lack of regional coverage in input cost data and disparity between available data and the total values for the electricity aggregate. All of the GTAP 9 Data Base is included in the GTAP-Power Data Base.

Recent Advances of Experimental Research in Environmental Economics

Recent Advances of Experimental Research in Environmental Economics

Are Internet surveys an alternative to face-to-face interviews in contingent valuation?

Internet is an increasingly popular data collection mode for stated preference research in environmental economics. However, little is known about how this survey mode may influence data quality and welfare estimates. As part of a national contingent valuation (CV) survey estimating willingness to pay (WTP) for biodiversity protection plans, we assign two groups of respondents either to an Internet or face-to-face (in-home) interview mode. Our design aims to better isolate measurement effects from sample composition effects by drawing both samples from the same sample frame. We find little evidence of social desirability bias in the interview setting or satisficing (shortcutting the response process) in the Internet survey. The share of “don't knows”, zeros and protest responses to the WTP question with a payment card is very similar between modes and equality of mean WTP cannot be rejected. Results are fairly encouraging for the use of Internet in CV as stated preferences do not seem to be significantly different or biased compared to face-to-face interviews.

How Much Does Journal Reputation Tell Us About the Academic Interest and Relevance of Economic Research? Empirical Analysis and Implications for Environmental Economic Research

Unlike in other disciplines, research output in economics is commonly measured based on the disciplinary reputation of the journals in which an author has published. Here, I examine how much output measures based on journal reputation tell us about the academic interest and relevance of economic papers as measured by frequency of citation. Using data from the 2008 Handelsblatt ranking of economists in German speaking countries and interdisciplinary citation data from the Web of Science, I find that researcher scores based on journal reputation explain only about 30 percent of the variation (variance) in article citations. When the top 10 (20) percent of the researchers according to journal reputation scores are excluded, the percentage of explained variation in citation frequency drops to 8 (3) percent. Furthermore, using environmental economics journals as an example, I show that the traditional output measures strongly discourage applied and interdisciplinary economic research. The findings confirm that the traditional output measures provide incentives for narrow economic work even if that work is of interest to only few other researchers. Responsible hiring committees and funding institutions should take these problems seriously and re-consider existing standards in the evaluation of economic research.