the economic determinants of interest rate option smiles we address three questions relating to the interest rate options market what is the shape of the smile what are the economic determinants of the shape of the smile do these determinants have predictive power for the future shape of the smile and vice versa we investigate these issues using daily bid and ask prices of euro interest rate caps floors we find a clear smile pattern in interest rate options the shape of the smile varies over time and is affected in a dynamic manner by yield curve variables and the future uncertainty in the interest rate markets it also has information about future aggregate default risk our findings are useful for the pricing hedging and risk management of these derivatives

the early history of modern ecological economics abstract this paper provides a historical perspective for the discussion on ecological economics as a special field of research by studying the historical background of ecological economics the present discussions and tensions inside the field might become easier to understand and to relate to the study is inspired by other studies of the emergence of new research areas done by sociologists and historians of science and includes both cognitive and social aspects macro trends and the role of individuals the basis for the paper is a combination of literature studies and interviews with key researchers from the field the story opens with the emergence of the new environmental agenda in the 1960s which was influenced by the scientific development in biology and ecology then it is outlined how the environmental challenge was met by economics in the 1960s around 1970 the basic ideas of ecological economics were given modern formulations but it took a long gestation period from the beginning of the 1970s to the end of the 1980s before ecological economics took shape during this gestation period the personal relationships between the actors were formed and the meetings that were decisive for the formal establishment of ecological economics took place

defining the rebound effect abstract this paper gives rigorous definitions of the rebound effect not only in the well described single commodity case khazzoom 1980 the energy journal 1 4 21 40 but also for a multiple commodity case it is shown that the familiar laws for the single case do not hold for the multiple case the paper describes the state of the art of empirical estimation of the rebound effect with special focus on the estimates done for the netherlands we conclude that according to every definition empirical evidence shows that the re is probably small between 0 and 15

circular economy at the micro level a dynamic view of incumbents struggles and challenges in the textile industry the circular economy ce has received considerable attention as an approach that promises to reconcile ecological systems and economic growth in spite of its increased popularity little is known about the implementation struggles of incumbent firms across industrial sectors furthermore although the notion of circular production systems is at the intersection of different research areas such as sustainable product design sustainable supply chains and reverse logistics knowledge on how these concepts combine to ease or impede firms transition towards circularity is scarce to shed light on these gaps i used multiple case studies from cradle to cradle certified companies in the textile industry in europe by employing qualitative research i identified a set of factors along the textile value chain from product design to take back and reprocessing that are crucial in expediting or delaying a firm s aspirations to develop a circular product the main contribution of this paper is the dynamic understanding of how certain collaborative supplier buyer innovation factors i e supply chain position power balance and a shared vision coupled with complex aspects in product design namely in basic materials architecture and functionality combine to determine the output speed and quantity of circular products to be sold taken back and ultimately regenerated

long run welfare under externalities in consumption leisure and production a case for happy degrowth vs unhappy growth in this paper we contribute to the debate on the relationship between growth and well being by examining an endogenous growth model where we allow for externalities in consumption leisure and production we analyze three regimes a decentralized economy where each household makes isolated choices without considering their external effects a planned economy where a myopic planner fails to recognize both leisure and consumption externalities but recognizes production externalities and a planned economy with a fully informed planner we first compare the balanced growth paths under the three regimes and then we numerically investigate the transition to the optimal balanced growth path we provide a number of findings first in a decentralized economy growth or labor or both are greater than in the regime with a fully informed planner and hence are sub optimal from a welfare standpoint second a myopic intervention which overlooks consumption and leisure externalities leads to more growth and labor than in both the decentralized and the fully informed regime third we provide a case for happy degrowth a transition to the optimal balanced growth path that is associated with downscaling of production a reduction in private consumption and an ongoing increase in leisure and well being

how do scholars approach the circular economy a systematic literature review abstract circular economy ce aims to overcome the take make dispose linear pattern of production and consumption proposing a circular system in which the value of products materials and resources is maintained in the economy as long as possible in recent years there has been a proliferation of scholars publications on the topic this study presents the results of a systematic literature review exploring the state of the art of academic research on ce the paper examines the ce body of literature with a systematic approach to provide an exhaustive analysis of the phenomenon with rigorous and reproducible research criteria the revisited material consists of 565 articles collected through the web of science and scopus databases and has been evaluated using specific structural dimensions to group literature into analytical categories starting from being a concept studied in connection with industrial ecology ce has slowly acquired its independent role in academic research framed mainly into environmental sustainability related studies as a result of policies implementation academic production is mainly concentrated in china and europe employing tools and methods for modelling processes and supporting decision making for ce implementation e g life cycle assessment and material flow analysis ce studies follow three main lines of action the first aims to change the social and economic dynamics at macro and administrative level the second to support firms in circular processes implementation at micro level to spread new forms of consumption and product design the third developed at meso level discusses industrial symbiosis experiences ce is associated with a variety of concepts and waste management emerges as the most relevant sub sector ce is also strongly connected with the concept of sustainability proposing ways to operationalize its implementation at the environmental and economic level while scholars only marginally consider social and institutional implications the most explored practices are those related to cleaner production aiming at reducing environmental impact and waste production along the life cycle of a product and optimizing the performance and efficiency of processes conversely studies on ce may devote greater attention to strategies for social and institutional changes able to transform the upstream process of production and consumption considering business model strategies scholars mainly focus on studying closing material loops strategy while slowing the loops which requires a radical change of consumption and production patterns is only marginally included with respect to ce implementation this study s findings highlight ce as an evolving concept that still requires development to consolidate its definition boundaries principles and associated practices

nowcasting the real time informational content of macroeconomic data abstract a formal method is developed for evaluating the marginal impact that intra monthly data releases have on current quarter forecasts nowcasts of real gross domestic product gdp growth the method can track the real time flow of the type of information monitored by central banks because it can handle large data sets with staggered data release dates each time new data are released the nowcasts are updated on the basis of progressively larger data sets that reflecting the unsynchronized data release dates have a jagged edge across the most recent months

trends in the development of ecological economics from the late 1980s to the early 2000s abstract as the contributions to ecological economics are very diverse recent years have seen some discussion on both how to delimit the field and in which direction it should develop the intention with this paper is to contribute to the discussion by outlining important trends in the development of the field from the late 1980s to the early 2000s the study is inspired by other studies in the sociology and history of science in particular by the theoretical framework regarding scientific fields as reputational organizations which draws attention to both cognitive and social aspects of the formation of a field the basis for the paper is a combination of literature studies interviews with key researchers in the field and participant observations the paper outlines the characteristic cognitive features of ecological economics at the time of the birth of the field it is then described how the development in ecological economics was influenced by broader social factors during the following years and how the field was shaped by the inflow and outflow of different groups of researchers the emergence of different research programmes is outlined as is the organizational development finally the characteristics of ecological economics are summarized and the future prospects are briefly assessed

meat consumption and production analysis of efficiency sufficiency and consistency of global trends abstract the sustainability challenges that the food system is facing are ever increasing the traditional approach to monitoring these changes considers economic societal and environmental sustainability a strong case has been made however that a fourth dimension ethical should also be considered conventionally two main strategies have been used to assess the improvements in sustainability efficiency and sufficiency efficiency is usually linked with technological improvements and sufficiency is connected with a reduction in production or consumption we introduce a third strategy to the analysis namely consistency that is related mainly to the ethical dimension of sustainability trends of the indicators related to the three strategies are calculated on both a global and regional scale from 1962 to 2009 efficiency measured as land requirement for animal products has increased by about 13 percent globally sufficiency measured as the amount of meat consumed has declined by 91 percent and consistency measured as the number of animals slaughtered has declined by 264 percent in addition convergence analysis emphasizes that industrialized and developing countries are moving towards similar patterns of animal products consumption such results suggest that measures should be taken to develop a food system that is not only efficient but also ethically just

the bullwhip effect in closed loop supply chains a systematic literature review abstract the bullwhip effect or how uncertainty associated with the end customers demand propagates through the entire supply chain has been widely discussed in supply chain management literature although there is a well established research stream on the causes and mitigating factors for the bullwhip effect in forward supply chains few studies have investigated how this phenomenon manifests itself in closed loop supply chains we argue that this phenomenon can affect the supply chain s environmental performance by increasing emissions waste and consumption of natural resources aiming at filling this theoretical gap this article compares the causes and mitigating factors of the bullwhip effect in forward supply chains and closed loop supply chains to this end we employ a systematic literature review that combines bibliometric and content analyses the studies examined in our review indicate that the causes of the bullwhip effect in closed loop supply chains are similar to those in forward supply chains however most of the studies have not considered that the quality of returned products are different from the quality of their new counterparts products adding another variable into the complexity of a given supply chain which in turn could lead to higher variability thereby causing the bullwhip effect regarding mitigation we found that the primary mitigating factor is related to increasing the product return rate moreover we suggest that closing a supply chain can reduce the bullwhip effect which could lead to positive impacts in the environmental performance of supply chains

the circular economy swings and roundabouts abstract in the last few decades the circular economy has increasingly been advertised as an economic model that can replace the current linear economy whilst addressing the issues of environmental deterioration social equity and long term economic growth with the explicit suggestion that it can serve as a tool for sustainable development however despite the individual prominence of the circular economy and sustainable development in the academic and wider literature the exact relationship between the two concepts has neither been thoroughly defined nor explored the consequent result is various inconsistencies occurring across the literature regarding how the circular economy can serve as a tool for sustainable development and an incomplete understanding of how its long term effects differ from those of the linear economy a literature review was conducted to interpret the current conceptual relationship between the circular economy and sustainable development the review highlights numerous challenges concerning conceptual definition economic growth and implementation that inhibit the use of the circular economy as a tool for sustainable development in its current form the review concludes by providing suggestions for how research concerning the circular economy should proceed if it is to provide a potential approach for achieving sustainable development

the circular economy an interdisciplinary exploration of the concept and application in a global context there have long been calls from industry for guidance in implementing strategies for sustainable development the circular economy represents the most recent attempt to conceptualize the integration of economic activity and environmental wellbeing in a sustainable way this set of ideas has been adopted by china as the basis of their economic development included in both the 11th and the 12th five year plan escalating the concept in minds of western policymakers and ngos this paper traces the conceptualisations and origins of the circular economy tracing its meanings and exploring its antecedents in economics and ecology and discusses how the circular economy has been operationalized in business and policy the paper finds that while the circular economy places emphasis on the redesign of processes and cycling of materials which may contribute to more sustainable business models it also encapsulates tensions and limitations these include an absence of the social dimension inherent in sustainable development that limits its ethical dimensions and some unintended consequences this leads us to propose a revised definition of the circular economy as an economic model wherein planning resourcing procurement production and reprocessing are designed and managed as both process and output to maximize ecosystem functioning and human well being

an economic instrument for zero waste economic growth and sustainability if global problems such as climate change and waste remain unresolved society can choose either to continue attempting to incrementally reduce wastes and lessen impacts or to consider a more ambitious approach that paradoxically may be easier to implement this paper suggests how an approach designed to prevent waste and other global impacts could be based upon the established practices of precycling circular economic policy and recycling insurance a new economic instrument called precycling insurance is proposed so that decision making can be led by the market rather than by prescriptive regulation or educational campaigns the approach gains relevance now that china is developing a national law on the promotion of the development of circular economy 2006 elsevier ltd all rights reserved

towards a new taxonomy of circular economy business models abstract circular economy has undoubtedly become one of the hot topics in public debates about new and more sustainable industrial paradigms and strategies in this respect the fashion of circular economy is in the fact that it aims at overcoming the dominant linear take make disposal economy model i e a traditional open ended economy model developed with no built in tendency to recycle which is reflected by treating the environment as a waste reservoir su et al 2013 circular economy indeed bases on the establishment of closed production systems where resources are reused and kept in a loop of production and usage allowing generating more value and for a longer period despite the interest for circular economy by politicians and practitioners scholars particularly in the strategic management field are still struggling with a lack of a framework explaining how companies willing to become circular adapt their existing business model or create a new one by extensively reviewing through the lens of business model literature the extant contributions on circular economy we propose a taxonomy of circular economy business models based on the degree of adoption of circularity along two major dimensions i the customer value proposition interface i e the implementation of the circularity concept in proposing value to customers ii the value network i e the ways through which interacting with suppliers and reorganizing the own internal activities the taxonomy is then initially tested through some explorative case studies showing in practice the ability of the framework to properly distinguish different modes of adoption of circular economy

institutionalisation of sustainable consumption patterns based on shared use the product service system pss concept has been proposed as a way of dealing with unsustainable patterns of consumption in the business to consumer b2c domain existing alternatives to traditional consumption based on ownership such as car sharing communal washing centres and tool sharing schemes indicate that more sustainable patterns of consumption may be found for other household functions however the low profile of these examples in society and on the market calls for a query into factors that may facilitate or hinder broader acceptance of more sustainable alternatives in this study the aforementioned examples are analysed from institutional and product service system perspectives and it is suggested that the embodiment of alternative consumption patterns into every day routines depends on institutional arrangements regulatory and normative on how the product service systems are designed and applied in practice and oil the socio cultural background of the society the systems are implemented in c 2004 elsevier b v all rights reserved less

ecosystems strong sustainability and the classical circular economy abstract in this article i argue that notions such as ecosystem services and strong sustainability can be best understood and developed within the theoretical framework advanced by the classical political economists in which a circular conception of the economy is provided i also argue that the development of notions such as ecosystem services and strong sustainability has been constrained by the dominance of neoclassical economics which provides a linear conception of the economy and leads to an emphasis on weak sustainability which in turn springs from an emphasis on substitutability and aggregate capital when assessing the relevance of classical political economy for studying ecosystem services and strong sustainability i consider not only the contributions of the classical political economists but also more recent contributions which draw upon the classical perspective such as piero sraffa s and amartya sen s

corporate credit risk dynamics the lack of widely available and comprehensive data of default activity on the corporate level has encouraged the advance of theories of corporate credit risk far beyond related empirical work this article addresses this deficit by examining a unique data set corporate bond defaults and credit ratings compiled by moody s investors service since 1920 the article investigates the time inhomogeneity of company default risk that is the pattern in which the risk of default for a company changes over time the empirical analysis addresses company default risk within a regression framework of competing risks or hazards the analysis identifies and quantifies variations in default risk with macroeconomic conditions with industries and through time an important characterization for many approaches to measuring and managing credit risk

understanding sustainability innovations through positive ethical networks in this paper a positive organizational ethics poe based framework is informed by the microfinance and socially responsible investing movements to capture the process of sustainable financial innovations both of these movements are uniquely characterized by the formation of positive ethical networks pens to develop sustainability innovations in response to external crises the crisis pen innovation framework proposed makes four contributions to the poe literature 1 positions corporate sustainability through a poe lens 2 formalizes the pen construction through poe theory 3 proposes pens are mobilized to respond to external crises and 4 demonstrates how pens facilitate sustainability innovations the theoretical framework is tested using theory guided process tracing in the sustainable banking sector to understand how sustainability innovations were realized the findings are consistent with the crisis pen innovation framework proposed

institutional incentives in circular economy transition the case of material use in the dutch textile industry the aim of this paper is to gain insight into how requirements for transitioning to circular economy creates new organizational forms in inter firm collaborations and ultimately how they stimulate the emergence of new institutions enhancing sustainability two strands of literature one on circular economy and one on institutional analysis provide the theoretical background for this research currently a clearly formulated and unified theory on the institutions of circular economy is lacking therefore this research compares and contrasts empirical evidence from cases derived from the textile industry in the netherlands and concepts derived from institutional analysis and literature on circular economy to inductively build a cohesive conceptual framework using information from cases we identified two pathways to transition into circular economy and to manage circular material flows we define these pathways status quo arrangements sq when firms focus on optimizing up cycling technologies and infrastructure in their circular relations and collaborations and product as service arrangements pas to indicate a focus on providing products in service contracts chain coordination contracting and financial mechanisms were identified as key organizational elements for creating new pathways to transition into circular materials flows however in analyzing these elements we also highlight differences between sq and pas arrangements sq arrangements may have implications at the level of formal rules for example by creating a new industry standards for up cycled fabrics pas arrangements may have wider implications for example by reshaping ownership in service contracts and creating cascading activities moving ownership to the supply chain will result in increased responsibility for materials and will create an incentive for improving quality of products including their environmental performance this is expected to generate positive socio environmental impacts at a system level as well moreover pas arrangements may have bottom up effects at a formal institutional level resulting in alteration and creation of formal rules for example in terms of new approaches to the ownership of materials

towards a national circular economy indicator system in china an evaluation and critical analysis abstract it is widely acknowledged that china s economic miracle has been achieved at the expense of its natural capital and environment in order to deal with this problem the circular economy ce has been chosen as a national policy for sustainable development national laws and regulations have been enacted to facilitate the implementation of ce and national ce demonstration projects have been initiated such that national benchmarking activities could be completed china is the first country to release nationally focused ce indicators so that objective and credible information on the status of ce implementation can be recognized these ce indicators are valuable metrics for policy and decision makers and can help achieve ce goals and outcomes this unique indicator system has not been communicated to international communities this paper aims to more broadly introduce this unique national ce indicator system china s ce efforts are first detailed with various provisions of the national indicator system a critical analysis of such an indicator system is presented we show that certain benefits can be gained but substantive revision is also needed due to the lack of a comprehensive set of sustainability indicators which should include social business indicators urban industrial symbiosis absolute material energy reduction and prevention oriented indicators concerns related to barriers on implementation are also presented in this paper the knowledge gained from chinese efforts on ce indicators are valuable to both developed and developing nations seeking to implement sustainable development measures within their regulatory policies

why are we growth addicted the hard way towards degrowth in the involutionary western development path abstract by questioning the origins of the inertia facing the degrowth movement this contribution identifies property as the constitutive institution of capitalism and property expansion as the dominant socioeconomic process leading world societies to economic path dependence techno institutional lock in and eco social impasse demonstrating why and how property based economic rationality subordinates ecological and social considerations to capitalist requirements this paper stresses both the need for an inversion in the hierarchy of social norms and the systemic opposition to such an inversion which emanates from the capitalist industrial expansion the text also brings to light some disregarded processes underlying the current economic crisis by pointing out the institutional and technological locked in situation into which the western development path has led our societies

strong sustainable consumption governance precondition for a degrowth path this paper aims to link two debates and literatures at the cutting edge of sustainable development research and governance sustainable consumption and degrowth interestingly these literatures have only recently started to exchange and integrate insights despite their similar interest in the fundamental systemic challenges to sustainable development the paper argues that this lack of connection is due to a predominance of perspectives in sustainable consumption governance that focus almost exclusively on questions of efficiency gains this weak sustainable consumption governance however is not able to address the challenges to sustainable development arising from overconsumption in general or the rebound effect and distributive issues in particular in contrast a strong sustainable consumption perspective provides a basis for a promising inquiry into the linkages between consumption and sustainable development as well as a fruitful exchange with degrowth specifically it allows the delineation of relevant insights on the role of values in governance obstacles to political reform and promising political strategies for the degrowth debate and literature

modeling the bid ask spread measuring the inventory holding premium the need to understand and measure the determinants of market maker bid ask spreads is crucial in evaluating the merits of competing market structures and the fairness of market maker rents this study develops a simple parsimonious model for the market maker s spread that accounts for the effects of price discreteness induced by minimum tick size order processing costs inventory holding costs adverse selection and competition the inventory holding and adverse selection cost components of spread are modeled as an option with a stochastic time to expiration this inventory holding premium embedded in the spread represents compensation for the price risk borne by the market maker while the security is held in inventory the premium is partitioned in such a way that the inventory holding and adverse selection cost components as well as the probability of an informed trade are identified the model is tested empirically using nasdaq stocks in three distinct minimum tick size regimes and is shown to perform well both in an absolute sense and relative to competing specifications

towards a consensus on the circular economy abstract the growing importance of the concept of the circular economy as a way to attain sustainable development has encouraged scholars to propose different ways to understand it given the large number of studies done on the circular economy their differing approaches and their multiple applications this paper attempts to propose a consensus view of the basic notions of the circular economy framework and highlight its relationship with eco innovation to that end this study carried out a systematic literature review that resulted in four main outputs a knowledge map of the circular economy an analysis of the main notions of the concept principles and determinants of a circular economy finally this study brings to light some remarkable examples of eco innovations developed for implementation in the circular economy

applying socio ecological economics a case study of contingent valuation and integrated catchment management abstract socio ecological economics has emerged as a new movement within ecological economics that overtly takes account of the sociological and political bases of economic activity as well as the biophysical base the paper comments on the usefulness of the principles of socio ecological economics in the light of a recent example of applied social and economic research into contingent valuation cv and integrated catchment management icm in the hawkesbury nepean in the first australian study of the temporal stability of cv responses it was found that average willingness to pay wtp to improve water quality did not change significantly over a 2 year period nor could any statistically significant explanation of bid size or change in wtp be found on each of the three occasions when cv surveys were completed participants were asked a series of follow up questions and then engaged in discussion on attitudes to cv reasons for any changes in wtp and views of possible uses for cv in icm socio ecological economics proved to be useful in analysing the results of the case study by identifying a wider range of possible determinants of individual and government behaviour than simple maximisation models these determinants especially ethical values for individuals and organisational culture for governments provided good explanations for the qualitative results obtained and perhaps a better explanation of the quantitative results it also usefully emphasised the dynamics of the interaction between the different determinants of behaviour with regard to cv consideration of the likely dynamic between the different organisational structures and cultures within icm raised the possibility that introducing cv into icm in a widespread fashion could lead to resistance and modification of its use to a more qualitative and educative role the ideas of socio ecological economics have made a valuable contribution to the understanding and analysis of this case study and provide the beginning of a research agenda for socially oriented ecological economists results of the case study suggest that this agenda should include the applications of learning theory and social ecology to policy making institutions and processes for moving towards sustainability

green circular bio economy a comparative analysis of sustainability avenues despite their evidently different assumptions and operationalization strategies the concepts of circular economy green economy and bioeconomy are joined by the common ideal to reconcile economic environmental and social goals the three concepts are currently mainstreamed in academia and policy making as key sustainability avenues but a comparative analysis of such concepts is missing the aim of this article is thus to comprehensively analyse the diversity within and between such concepts the results are drawn from a bibliometric review of almost two thousand scientific articles published within the last three decades coupled with a conceptual analysis we find that for what concerns environmental sustainability green economy acts as an umbrella concept including elements from circular economy and bioeconomy concepts e g eco efficiency renewables as well as additional ideas e g nature based solutions in particular circular economy and bioeconomy are resource focused whereas in principle green economy acknowledges the underpinning role of all ecological processes regarding the social dimension green economy is more inclusive of some aspects at local level e g eco tourism education while there is an emerging discussion in bioeconomy literature around local processes in terms of biosecurity and rural policies when considering weak strong sustainability visions all concepts remain limited in questioning economic growth by comparing the different sustainability strategies promoted by these concepts we do not advocate for their substitutability but for their clarification and reciprocal integration the findings are discussed in light of the concepts synergies and limits with the purpose to inform research and policy implementation

technological progress and sustainable development what about the rebound effect abstract sustainability concepts that rest on the idea of resource or energy efficiency improvements due to technological progress tend to overestimate the potential saving effects because they frequently ignore the behavioral responses evoked by technological improvements efficiency improvements also affect the demand for resources and energy and often an increase in efficiency by 1 will cause a reduction in resource use that is far below 1 or sometimes it can even cause an increase in resource use this phenomenon is commonly labeled the rebound effect which is well known among energy economists but never attracted much attention in ecological economics the paper starts with the traditional neoclassical analysis of the rebound effect in a partial equilibrium framework that concentrates on the demand of one particular energy service such as mobility or room temperature it also provides an overview of some of the main empirical studies based on this model that mostly confirm the existence of the rebound effect but are controversial about its actual importance however we have to go beyond the neoclassical single service model in order to take care of the variety of possible feedback affecting energy use the paper presents two important expansions of the single service model in order to show the potential relevance of the rebound effect to ecological economics first it is shown that in a multi services model it proves to be difficult to make general statements about the relevance of the rebound effect in this case the overall effect of an increase in energy efficiency on total energy use depends on the on the assumptions about the substitutability between the services considered and the direction of the income effect second the paper also tries to take care of the fact that changes in resource use or energy use are frequently just side effects of other forms of technological progress especially technological change of a time saving nature can have a large influence on energy use as many time saving devices for example faster modes of transport require an increase in energy consumption that is frequently reinforced by a rebound effect with respect to time this effect will be especially strong when wages are high and at the same time energy prices are low as is currently the case in most industrialized countries consequently the paper also provides a strong argument for the introduction of energy taxes

the sufficiency strategy would rich world frugality lower environmental impact abstract one alleged weapon against unsustainable environmental impact is for the wealthy to consume less this sufficiency strategy is to complement the efficiency strategy of lowering ratios of resource inputs to economic outputs the former would reduce the affluence factor in i pat the latter the technology factor that the latter strategy suffers from a consumption rebound is widely recognized this paper identifies a similar rebound when the affluence factor is autonomously lowered the lower initial demand lowers prices which in turn stimulates new demand by others the strategy moreover addresses only the rich raising questions of its theoretical maximum efficacy its proponents usually conflate frugality with the north south dichotomy and intra generational with inter generational equity moreover there are difficulties with the supporting arguments that frugality is good for one s own sake as well as for the environment and that the rich should lead the way to living more lightly personal behaviour change is furthermore not a substitute for international political efforts finally since all changes in right side factors of the i pat equation change other right side factors such indirect attacks on impact should be abandoned in favor of supply and emissions quotas

green electricity in the market place the policy challenge the paper explores the implications of the liberalization of electricity markets in europe and north america for policy means and mechanisms to enhance the market penetration of renewables applying a co evolutionary approach the argument highlights the need for policy intervention to help producers and consumers move out of technological trajectories favoring non renewable electricity on the production side energy generation is locked into the central power station system deriving from more than a hundred years of technological development along a specific system trajectory on the consumption side the locked in effect results from a similarly long experience with electricity provision by monopoly suppliers and the associated lack of consumer choice and responsibility for product differentiation as the analysis shows policy strategies targeting both the production and consumption sides of the electricity market are needed for effective intervention furthermore policy strategies should draw on a clear analysis of the inertia and dynamism underlying the production and consumption of electricity in the light of such evolutionary dynamics the analysis demonstrates the insufficiency of the policy approaches currently employed to foster the market share of renewables based electricity instead the authors suggest a reflexive policy approach to initiate and support a reorientation towards green electricity emphasizing the need for learning and communication between and among societal actors

macroeconomic imbalances financial stress and fiscal vulnerability in the euro area before the debt crises a market view abstract this paper tries to identify the macro financial imbalances that exposed the euro area countries to fiscal stress before the outbreak of the european debt crises contrary to conventional wisdom that interprets fiscal stress in terms of fiscal sustainability we focus on short term fiscal vulnerability as reflected by the conditions of debt refinancing in the sovereign bond markets we find that market based indicators capturing risk perceptions of sovereign debts have been influenced by the indicators defined in the european macroeconomic imbalance procedure mip and by variables of financial vulnerability when pricing the risk of sovereign bonds the holders of government debts take into account not only the macroeconomic imbalances but also factors such as banking distress corporate bond risk liquidity risks in the interbank market or the volatility of stock prices

do increases in energy efficiency improve environmental quality and sustainability governments world wide increasingly see energy efficiency as an important aspect of sustainability however there is a debate in the literature as to whether the impact of improved energy efficiency on reducing energy use might be partially or more than wholly offset through rebound and backfire effects this paper clarifies the theoretical conditions under which such effects would occur and explores their likely significance using a computable general equilibrium cge model of the scottish economy we find that for scotland a general improvement in energy efficiency in the production sectors of the economy initially produces rebound effects that eventually grow into backfire energy use ultimately increases in response to an efficiency gain and the ratio of gdp to co2 emissions falls the economic factors underpinning rebound effects are straightforward energy efficiency improvements result in an effective cut in energy prices which produces output substitution competitiveness and income effects that stimulate energy demands however the presence of strong rebound or even backfire does not mean that efficiency enhancing policies are irrelevant rather it suggests that such policies operating alone are insufficient to generate environmental improvements the implication is that a co ordinated portfolio of energy policies is required

policy mixes for sustainability transitions an extended concept and framework for analysis reaching a better understanding of the policies and politics of transitions presents a main agenda item in the emerging field of sustainability transitions one important requirement for these transitions such as the move towards a decarbonized energy system is the redirection and acceleration of technological change for which policies play a key role in this regard several studies have argued for the need to combine different policy instruments in so called policy mixes however existing policy mix studies often fall short of reflecting the complexity and dynamics of actual policy mixes the underlying politics and the evaluation of their impacts in this paper we take a first step towards an extended interdisciplinary policy mix concept based on a review of the bodies of literature on innovation studies environmental economics and policy analysis the concept introduces a clear terminology and consists of the three building blocks elements policy processes and characteristics which can be delineated by several dimensions based on this we discuss its application as analytical framework for empirical studies analyzing the impact of the policy mix on technological change throughout the paper we illustrate the proposed concept by using the example of the policy mix for fostering the transition of the german energy system to renewable power generation technologies finally we derive policy implications and suggest avenues for future research

on the circular bioeconomy and decoupling implications for sustainable growth abstract this paper explores the existing confusion around the conceptual definitions and interpretations of the term circular bioeconomy the co existence of diametrically opposite interpretations of the concept indicates lack of a serious discussion of its theoretical foundations two narratives on circular bioeconomy are explored in depth i the new economic paradigm based on technological progress the economics of technological promises that seeks perpetual economic growth ii an entropic thermodynamic narrative that reflects on the limits on economic growth imposed by nature the latter narrative makes a distinction between primary secondary and tertiary resource flows and helps to identify what can and cannot be re circulated within the metabolic pattern of social ecological systems adopting the biophysical view it becomes clear that the industrial revolution represented a linearization of material and energy flows with the goal to overcome the low pace and density of biological transformations the required level of productivity of production factors in contemporary developed economies flows per hour of labor and per hectare of land use is orders of magnitude larger than the pace and density of supply and sink capacity of natural processes relying on nature to close the loop will simply slow down the economic process

less is more the influence of aspirations and priming on well being abstract if resource consumption is to be reduced through economic de growth individuals in industrialized countries may have to accept a reduction in their consumption levels in democratic societies implementing this process requires the consent of a majority of the population however as long as people have high reference levels of consumption lower consumption will induce feelings of loss and hence evoke resistance this paper summarizes recent experimental evidence on some of the factors that determine the utility costs involved in decreasing consumption the results suggest that the acceptance of economic de growth would be facilitated if people s material aspirations were moderated and the extent to which material achievements are emphasized in our daily environment were reduced an analysis of the financial and economic crisis that developed during 2008 suggests that it will not contribute to either of these points rather by increasing the public s focus on the economic sphere even beyond pre crisis levels it may lead to a further decrease in the acceptance of de growth policies in the population

financial conditions indexes for the united states and euro area abstract financial conditions indexes are developed for the united states and euro area using a wide range of financial indicators and a dynamic factor model the financial conditions indexes are shown to be useful for forecasting economic activity and have good revision properties variants of the indexes that allow for cross economy effects reveal very strong financial linkages across the united states and euro area

the growth discourse growth policy and sustainable development two thought experiments abstract this paper addresses three aspects of growth the discourse the policy and the impacts the growth discourse claims that the central factor for social economic political and environmental progress is economic growth it is assumed to create wealth and provide the necessary means for social and environmental purposes on the basis of the growth discourse different growth policies can be derived based on different economic and political ideologies in order to reveal the implications of de facto degrowth two thought experiments are conducted for physical and economic end to growth strategies the latter is capable of meeting environmental objectives but implies significant social tensions and hardships and calls for transition strategies consisting of carefully designed steps

a time use perspective on the materials intensity of consumption abstract the ecological requirements to drastically increase the productivity of materials use call for improvements in the efficiency of consumption this eco efficiency discussion often takes a functional view on consumption noting that present consumption is inefficient and that it is not the products that the consumers want but the services that the products yield however contemporary consumption serves many needs that are not functional and universal but subjective and obscured from the producers this paper develops a time use approach towards consumption which makes allowance for the subjectivity of needs while still enabling the analysts to approach the concept of a sustainable lifestyle a distinctive premise of the analysis is that it assumes time and money not to be interchangeable and consumption to be limited by available consumption time instead of purchasing power this approach is demonstrated by linking the direct and the indirect energy use of finnish two person households to the data of a national time use survey the results are used to point out some of the potential time use rebound effects of such new eco efficient services that transfer activities from private households to the market actors

an insight into the italian chemical sector how to make it green and efficient abstract the present research moves from the consideration that the implementation and the dissemination of circular economy processes is a hotspot in european ecosystem management and that eu countries must converge towards the same targets considering the relevance of chemical sector economic and environmental impact we aim at unveiling the economic and institutional determinants of sectoral performances in terms of circular economy and resource efficiency by means an oecd procedure we built a circular economy index for the chemical sector following a panel data model has been applied on 20 italian regions in order to test two economic hypotheses and a politico institutional one this allowed us to capture the features most likely to affect circular performances within the regions the findings reveal that regional socio economic background plays a fundamental role in improving firm performance level while institutions and sectoral economic dynamic are not strong flywheel of circular economy

green economy and related concepts an overview for the last ten years the notion of a green economy has become increasingly attractive to policy makers however green economy covers a lot of diverse concepts and its links with sustainability are not always clear in this article we focus on definitions of green economy and related concepts and an evaluation of these concepts against the criterion of strong and weak sustainability the article serves three purposes firstly we identify and describe diverse theories concepts approaches and tools related to a green economy among these are the theories of environmental economics and ecological economics the concepts and approaches of cleaner production waste hierarchy bio economy industrial ecology circular economy nature based solutions and dematerialization through product servicizing and tools like life cycle assessment and cost benefit analysis secondly we develop a framework that shows the capacity of the green economy concepts approaches and tools to support the transition towards sustainability such a framework can serve as a heuristic to embed diverse concepts and approaches into a green economy framework thirdly we briefly discuss green economy concepts with respect to their impact on strong and weak sustainability depending on the different concepts approaches and tools identified in the green economy framework different degrees of substitutability and trade offs between environmental and economic benefits are allowed and more or less structural changes of our modes of living are required by discussing the notion of green economy and related concepts approaches and tools we seek to make a contribution to their definitions and relationships as a prerequisite for operationalizing green economy

what is ecological economics ecological economics addresses the relationships between ecosystems and economic systems in the broadest sense these relationships are the locus of many of our most pressing current problems i e sustainability acid rain global warming species extinction wealth distribution but they are not well covered by any existing discipline environmental and resource economics as it is currently practiced covers only the application of neoclassical economics to environmental and resource problems ecology as it is cur rently practiced sometimes deals with human impacts on ecosystems but the more common tendency is to stick to natural systems ecological economics aims to extend these modest areas of overlap it will include neoclassical environmental economics and ecological impact studies as sub sets but will also encourage new ways of thinking about the linkages between ecological and economic systems we have chosen the name ecological economics for this area of study because it implies a broad ecological interdisciplinary and holistic view of the problem of studying and managing our world the earth from space cover of the journal reflects this global holistic perspective we did not intend to imply with the ordering of the two words in the title that the journal is mainly an economics journal it is intended to be a new approach to both ecology and economics that recognizes the need to make economics more cognizant of ecological impacts and dependencies the need to make ecology more sensitive to economic forces incentives and constraints and the need to treat integrated economic ecologic systems with a common but diverse set of conceptual and analytical tools there was much discussion of other possible names such as economic ecology or ecology and economics or some conjoining of the two words that to me end up being confusing tongue twisters like ecolnomics or econology but ecological economics seemed to get closest to the mean ing we desired while still being evocative to the uninitiated