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

unemployment risk and precautionary wealth evidence from households balance sheets this paper examines precautionary behavior by relating job loss risk to household net worth we use existing best practice and some new strategies to deal with some problematic issues inherent in this literature regarding proxying uncertainty instrumentation and incorporating theoretical restrictions we do not find precautionary variation in the wealth holdings of households with low permanent income but do find precautionary effects for moderate and higher income households when the dependent variable is total net worth these findings are robust to several alternative specifications but we do not find precautionary responses in subaggregates of wealth that exclude home equity

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

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

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

relative price variability and inflation evidence from us cities we test whether the time series positive correlation of inflation and intermarket relative price variability is also present in a cross section of u s cities we find this correlation to be a robu

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

inflation and relative price variability new evidence for the united states this article provides new evidence on the empirical relationship between inflation and relative prices in the united states in line with the predictions of recent monetary search models we find that the impact of expected inflation on relative price variability rpv has disappeared during the recent period when inflation expectations have been stabilized on a low level endogenous break point tests are applied to identify the timing and to confirm the significance of the changing role of inflation for rpv the empirical findings are robust with respect to different price indices disaggregation levels and measurement concepts

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

relative price variability and inflation regression studies have established that there tend to be convex nonsymmetric relationships between relative price variability and the inflation rate unanticipated inflation and the change in the inflation rate this paper shows that such regression results follow as definitional artifacts for a simple but quite general stochastic model of price changes the analysis is based on the fact that the definitions of relative price variability the inflation rate unanticipated inflation and the change in the inflation rate imply a particular structure for the covariances among these variables the structure of these covariances has implications for the regression coefficients copyright 1991 by ohio state university press

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

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

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

inflation and price setting in a natural experiment abstract we analyze the behavior of price setters in poland during the transition from a planned to a market economy using a large disaggregated data set the size and frequency of price changes as well as relative price variability all increase as inflation rises the effect of expected inflation on relative price variability is much stronger than the effect of unexpected inflation despite the unusual economic environment the results are qualitatively identical and quantitatively stronger than those in lach and tsiddon 1992 journal of political economy 100 349 389

relative price changes as aggregate supply shocks this paper proposes a theory of supply shocks or shifts in the short run phillips curve based on relative price changes and frictions in nominal price adjustment when price adjustment is costly firms adjust to large shocks but not to small shocks and so large shocks have disproportionate effects on the price level therefore aggregate inflation depends on the distribution of relative price changes inflation rises when the distribution is skewed to the right and falls when the distribution is skewed to the left we show that this theoretical result explains a large fraction of movements in postwar u s inflation moreover our model suggests measures of supply shocks that perform better than traditional measures such as the relative prices of food and energy

intercountry differences in the relationship between relative price variability and average prices this paper provides new evidence on the relationship between relative price variability and inflation the model uses a consistently defined data set for nine european countries it benefits from the inclusion and testing of the effects of macroeconomic variables and the incorporation into the measures of inflation and dispersion adjustments for timeliness appropriate formulas and proximity the general findings of an effect on relative price variability by the macroeconomic environment and negative coefficients on unexpected inflation are supported by their occurrence in models estimated by seemingly unrelated regression and a robust systems estimator

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