Ecosystem Services (ES) can contribute to several aspects of human well-being (WB) that we understand as the subjective perception that individuals have of their quality of life, depending on a set of factors. We compare the relative weights of the WB factors resulting from ES (ES-based) and those that do not depend on ES (non-ES-based), from an online survey (N = 1006) relating to ES linked to fish-farming

Ecological economics has existed as a field for over 30 years. The field has since its inception strived to transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries and incorporates many substantially different perspectives. Despite continuous discussion about the fundamentals and direction of the field, ecological economists maintain a perception that ecological economics is at its core one field, although there

Mineral aggregates (sand and gravel) have been the fastest growing and the most volumetrically extracted material group extracted over the 21st century. This growth has been associated with large-scale ecological degradation and violent localized extractive operations. Further, the ongoing rates of sand extraction are already resulting in emerging global and local sand scarcities. However, there is

As the consumption of dairy products continues to increase, consumers are increasingly paying attention to farm animal welfare (FAW) and its relationship with intensive production methods. Specifically, consumers of dairy products are becoming increasingly concerned about making socially responsible purchases. This study considers the nuances of this trend in Japan, which is an interesting market for

The 2014 CAP introduced the Small Farmers Scheme (SFS), offering small farms the option of an unconditional annual lump-sum payment per farm replacing the standard first pillar direct payments. This paper assesses the acceptability in France of an extended version of the 2014 SFS for the post-2020 CAP: it includes conditions on farmers' environmental efforts and on salaried employment. The results

Against the background of the current “Speed-Up Society,” which seems to foster a trade-off between economic success and climate change, we study whether the individual Pace of Life is associated with productivity and pro-environmental behavior on the micro-level. In a controlled laboratory environment with students in Germany, we measured the productivity of participants in a real effort task, quantified

Comparative institutional analyses of social-ecological systems (SESs) have advanced our understanding of features and performances of single institutions such as state, market, and self-organized institutions. However, such studies have hardly extended our understanding of institutional diversity to combinations of different institutions and their joint impacts on the dynamics of SES. We address this

Although monitoring is crucial for environmental science and policy, few studies have assessed its value for the public. To value the public preferences for environmental monitoring related to hydropower, we designed a discrete choice experiment, used the Q-methodology to select attributes and assessed preferences for monitoring with a split-sample design. While both samples faced decisions about hydropower

Agroecosystems provide several agroecosystem disservices, among which diffuse nutrient pollution is one of the most significant, mainly due to its negative impacts on surrounding ecosystems, such as coastal ecosystems. Therefore, the implementation of agricultural measures to mitigate nutrient pollution might become a way to overcome this environmental challenge. However, proper implementation requires

Brazil's ecological intergovernmental fiscal transfer (ICMS-E) is a conservation incentive for protected areas (PAs). It redistributes tax revenues to reward municipalities for hosting PAs. To quantify its impact on the creation of state and municipal PAs, we used panel regressions on a longitudinal municipality dataset that combined information on PA creation and ICMS-E implementation for the 1467

The population of the unique and critically endangered species Malayan tiger (Panthera tigris jacksoni) continues to decline to less than 200 in the wild, demanding immediate attention to apply conservation plans. Thus, this study determined visitors' preferences and estimated their willingness to pay for Malayan tiger conservation attributes in Taman Negara Park in Pahang, Malaysia. Choice experiment

The uptake of diversified farming systems is constrained by a scarcity of evidence regarding financial costs, benefits, and risks. Here, we evaluate the productivity and projected farm income of an agroforestry system, where apples are integrated with arable crops, by combining primary data with ecosystem service and cost-benefit models. Our ecosystem service assessments included: 1) weed and pest

Soil organic carbon stocks have been declining for more than a century, mostly in the tropics. Maintaining soil organic matter is critical to tackling climate change and controlling soil health. One way to address this problem is to encourage farmers to improve soil carbon on their farms. We provide an ex-ante assessment of the cost-effectiveness of innovative Agri-Environmental Measures (AEM) that

Proponents of post-growth economic alternatives have repeatedly distinguished between economic recession – a chaotic and harmful economic contraction – and degrowth. In the literature, the latter is often put forward as a planned and intentional process which increases wellbeing while simultaneously reducing ecological harms. This article pays closer attention to what ‘planning’ and ‘intentionality’

This editorial introduces a special section of the journal on ecological economics: The next 30 years consisting of 20 different articles from a broad range of contributors. It explores common themes from the articles including uncertainty, the normative goals of sustainable scale and just distribution, collective action, co-evolution, transdisciplinarity and the need for radical systemic change. Drawing

Organic agriculture has achieved many important milestones over the last three decades. Despite these achievements, criticism of the mainstream model of agriculture, which had originally contributed to the success of the organic sector, is potentially having a negative impact on its transformative potential. The main goal of this paper is to provide further empirical evidence that captures ongoing

This paper introduces the special section entitled “Ecological Economics of Water: social and political perspectives”, which brings together articles published in successive issues of the journal in 2020 and 2021. By discussing the literature, we review contemporary issues and controversies surrounding water management and water policies to highlight the importance of the social and political dimensions

In this article we shed light, analyze and question a very broad consensus among economists. Beyond some divergences (on the amounts and tools), most mainstream and heterodox economists present green investments as a necessary and first condition to solve the ecological crisis. We first examine the Green Investment Paradigm and its coalition to explain its importance in contemporary debates. The main

We develop a normative approach to optimal environmental compensation in a spatial framework. We determine both the location and the level of compensation that minimize the total cost of restoration while maintaining the social welfare unchanged. In our framework, the policy maker implements a No Net Loss policy that meets the No Worse-Off principle as well as a location constraint on the offset. We

How can decentralized individual decisions inefficiently reduce the ability of biodiversity to mitigate ecological and environmental variability and then its “natural insurance” role? In this article we present a simple theoretical set-up to address this question and to evaluate some policy options. We study a model of strategic competition among farmers for the conversion of a natural forest to agricultural

Since climate change presents an unprecedented threat to public health, creating environmentally sustainable communi ties has become an important policy goal. Many local governments have voluntarily implemented sustainability practices to mitigate and adapt to climate change at community levels. Because of the potential benefits, scholars and practitioners are paying increasing attention to the sustainability

Although natural hazard risk is expected to rise throughout the process of global warming, surprisingly little empirical research has been conducted on the question how hazard risk affects individual well-being. We contribute to closing this gap in the literature by combining geo-referenced survey data from the Gallup Tracking Poll and hurricane data for the United States. Using a wind field model

Urban catchments in Istanbul, such as the Ömerli Catchment, are expected to receive more visitors in the future due to an increase in population, long-term recreational habits, and an insufficient amount of urban green spaces in the metropolitan area. Therefore, estimating the recreation's monetary value is crucial for developing sustainable spatial strategies for urban catchments that take cultural

Deliberative methods elicit social values and provide a framework for explicit representation of value dimensions that go beyond narrow self-interest; these dimensions are obscured by methods that focus on monetary value. The primary objective of this paper is to explore the reasoning behind people's assessments of the value of ecosystem services in a deliberative context. To do so, we collected quantitative

This article examines the role of risk aversion on the sustainable management of mixed fisheries. We consider a bio-economic model of multiple species harvested by a single fleet with uncertain costs of effort. We assume that the regulatory agency aims at reaching MMEY (Multispecies Maximum Economic Yield) by maximizing the expected utility of total profits, where the utility function captures risk

By using resources more circularly, individual resources users hope to contribute to a more eco-efficient and sustainable resource use. Whether resources are used sustainably is decided at the macro-level, raising the question if, as well as how, the efficient and circular use of resources at the micro-level adds up to their efficient and circular use on the macro-level. Currently, the link between

Analyzing land-based climate mitigation measures requires the joint examination of the effects of multiple forcing agents. Non-CO2 forcing agents are often converted into “physical” CO2 equivalents, i.e., expressed in terms of how much CO2 would be required to inflict the same climate forcing as one unit of the agent. Similar conversions can also be based on equal social cost. Social-cost-based CO2

This paper introduces a stress test framework designed to quantify financial stability risks related to the energy transition. As is standard in financial stress testing, we first construct various tail-event scenarios, in which we incorporate shocks to climate policy and energy technology. We then use various modeling approaches to derive macroeconomic and industry-specific implications of these shocks

Malignant Catarhal Fever (MCF), caused by a virus transmitted from asymptomatic wildebeest, is a lethal disease in cattle that threatens livestock-based livelihoods and food security in many areas of Africa. Many herd owners reduce transmission risks by moving cattle away from infection hot-spots, but this imposes considerable economic burdens on their households. The advent of a partially-protective

Degrowth scholarship has enjoyed considerable momentum in recent times, resulting in a growing, diverse and vibrant field of research. Against this background, it becomes pertinent to reflect on the nature of degrowth science and on the philosophical assumptions underpinning it. Advocates of the degrowth perspective have so far largely abstained from engaging in such reflections and have yet to discuss

This study explores how environmental knowledge and risk perception influence individuals' sustainable consumption behavior through the mediation of environmental concern and behavioral intention. The study combines constructs from earlier studies to form a novel theoretical model, which is tested and validated with an open data set from the Environment III 2010 module, which was collected by the International

Faced with mounting resistance against mining, neoliberal governance resorts to polarising strategies that delegitimise the heterogenous positions people hold regarding mining. In this paper, we contrast and complicate these dichotomies with the lived experiences on the ground in Kyrgyzstan. We focus on the ‘Taldy-Bulak Levoberezhny’ gold mine near the town of Orlovka that has been lauded by the state

Little is known about the effects of green performance on corporate insolvency risk. This study examines the relationship between green performance and firm insolvency risk from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. Using a panel of 179 US firms included in the Newsweek Green Rankings and a system generalised method of moments estimation which generates endogeneity-robust regression coefficients

A key issue in understanding tropical forest disturbance is what drives farmers practicing customary shifting cultivation to clear crop fields in old-growth forest over secondary forest fallows. These farmers typically hold a stock of secondary forest fallows that can be used for cropping in rotation, built up over time in part through initial clearing of old-growth forest. In this paper we examine

Different options for a reform of the EU Emissions Trading System are discussed to ensure carbon price incentives for mitigation options in the basic materials sector, while minimizing carbon leakage risks. This paper quantifies carbon leakage risks, distributional implications, and additional revenues associated with an import-only border carbon adjustment (BCA), a symmetric (import and export) BCA

Feeding backyard wildlife has impure public good characteristics - it provides satisfaction to humans, both private and public, while also improving bird populations. We document a surge in human interest in connecting with wild birds during lockdowns in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Using an event-study design, we find large increases in bird engagement began soon after the start of the COVID-19

Brands hold a promising contribution to align the food system with sustainable farm development. The food system consists of a myriad of, generally small-scale, producers and consumers and retail chains provide the link between the two. As such, their brands determine to a large extend what is understood by sustainability. This article focuses on brands' sustainability definitions and their requirements

Conrad (2018) offers a real option model to analyze conservation policy for endangered species. However, the proposed solution does not characterize the optimal intervention policy. We present the optimal solution and briefly illustrate its implications for the California condor case studied in Conrad (2018). Using an extended model, we further examine how operational flexibility affects the optimal

An important aspect of modeling the coupled human–Earth system is how weather and climate affects the economy. In particular, extreme weather and climate events can cause significant economic damages. Hence, there is a need to better understand the relationship between economic damages and extreme weather and climate events. Here, we analyze economic damage data using regression and probabilistic methods

Farmers' adoption of climate change mitigation measures is key to successfully reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. This article investigates the role of non-cognitive skills, namely self-efficacy and locus of control, in farmers' uptake of mitigation measures. The study is based on a combination of survey and census data from 105 farmers in Switzerland. Almost all farmers in our sample already

Eco-labels are informational cues that transform credence into quasi-search attributes but their influence on consumer decision making is often disappointing. This paper identifies antecedents of trust in, and use of, eco-labels, validating a theoretical model with data for four publicly managed organic labels (the EU green leaf and three national labels from France, Germany and Serbia). Drawing on

Some communities in Ontario procure potable water through water sharing arrangements (WSAs) with other neighbouring communities. This paper explores factors influencing First Nation and municipal participation in WSAs in Ontario. Specifically, we assess whether First Nations communities – many of which suffer persistently poor drinking water conditions – are less likely to be engaged in WSAs than municipalities

The economic analysis of climate change requires estimates at both aggregate and local level. Although there are numerous studies that estimate the global impact of climate change, country-level studies are still rare, particularly as far as Italy is concerned. By exploiting a panel of 110 provinces observed between 1980 and 2014, this paper investigates the impact of variation of weather variables

Ecological economics and systems theory have a long-standing history. As a foregrounding metatheoretical framework, systems thinking deepens socio-ecological acuity through comprehensive models of complex relationships between social and biophysical systems. However, critical and soft systems are often overlooked, necessitating a framework for “critical pluralism,” similar to that used by systems theorists

Climate change is likely to increase droughts. The vulnerability of cities to droughts is increasing worldwide. Policy responses from cities to droughts lack consideration of long-term climatic and socio-economic scenarios, and focus on short-term emergency actions that disregard sustainability in the connected regional and river basin systems. We aim to explore the dynamics of the water-energy-land

The newly emerging concept of sustainable welfare refers to welfare systems which aim to satisfy everyone's needs within planetary boundaries and to decouple the welfare-growth nexus. Both Universal Basic Income (UBI) and Universal Basic Services (UBS) have been discussed as suitable, but potentially competing, approaches that could support sustainable welfare. This paper contributes to this debate

In this paper, we take a global view at air pollution looking at cities and countries worldwide. We pay special attention at the spatial distribution of population and its relationship with the evolution of emissions. To do so, we build i) a unique and large dataset for more than 1200 (big) cities around the world, combining data on emissions of CO2 and PM2.5 with satellite data on built-up areas,

In this paper we investigate the role of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) on the Italian power exchange. The purpose of this analysis is to assess the impact of electricity generation from RES on the reduction of CO2 emissions and on the value of the power supply. The study is based on hourly zonal micro-data for 2018 from the Italian power market and identifies the amount of avoided carbon emissions

Target 19 of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 17 calls for the use of alternative measures of economic welfare in addition to Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) is an example of such a measure, including various non-market benefits and environmental and social costs unaccounted for in GDP. This study presents the results from the first estimate of the

Notwithstanding the increased interest in, and development of, sociocultural valuation methods, the structure and replicability of these methods' procedures are critiqued. To overcome this, we develop a theoretical framework based on deliberation, local ecological knowledge, and quantified values that we operationalize by adapting a conventional Q-method (a mixed-methods research approach) into a deliberative

This study tests the stability of environmental preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) values using a discrete choice experiment (DCE) across three countries pre and post the peak of the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. A DCE examining the public's preferences for alternative environmental management plans on the high seas, in the area of the Flemish Cap, was carried out in Canada, Scotland and

Crop diversity is fundamental to the sustainability of agricultural and ecological systems. However, there has been relatively little attention to crop diversity in the US, despite its continued decline. Moreover, most past research on crops in the US has principally focused on crops grown commercially, neglecting the crop diversity that occurs through non-commercial activities. In this paper, we explore

This study presents a meta-analysis of the economic values of global forest ecosystem services. The meta-analysis is conducted based on data from primary studies published between 1990 and 2018. The value-estimates from those studies are standardized into international currency units i.e. US dollar/ha/year using the purchasing power parity of countries at 2017 price levels. This standardization results

This article provides an analysis of The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review. The review places the study of biodiversity at the core of economics, by providing a conception that takes into account human impact in the biosphere, and planetary boundaries. This leads to a theoretical model where the human economy is bounded. Within this conception, Nature is valued as an asset, in a context

The contingent valuation method (CV) has become a recognised tool for estimating monetary non-market values. Despite the pragmatic acceptance of CV in policy evaluation, the application of CV-based estimates in decision-making remains controversial, as critics argue that CV suffers of hypothetical bias and question its accuracy to reflect non-market values via willingness to pay (WTP) estimates. In

Using information on climate transition risks embedded in US equity mutual fund portfolios, we report evidence that mutual fund investors consider climate-related transition risk to be an undesirable fund feature and accordingly allocate more money to funds with lower climate-related transition risk. The size of the impact of this risk on fund flows differs depending on the performance expectations

This study explored whether EU's new Farm to Fork strategy (F2F)—which aims to tackle climate change, protect the environment and preserve biodiversity in the pursuit of more sustainable food practices—moves in a direction that matches consumer concerns about global issues. A key point is that the traditional differences between the policy approaches related to climate change mitigation and to biodiversity