Biodiversity laws in several European countries rely on official species-level price lists for fauna to enable compensation for biodiversity damage. However, the methods underlying these values are often opaque and poorly justified, raising concerns about consistency, fairness and ecological relevance. To gain insights into the revealed public regulatory patterns embedded in these mechanisms, we investigate how monetary compensation values are assigned to fauna in European biodiversity legislation and what factors influence these values. Here we show that species-level values are implicitly guided by biological traits and taxonomic biases, based on a dataset of 9,971 species across 24 countries. Our analysis reveals that mammals and birds receive disproportionately higher values, while traits such as generation length and protection status also significantly influence values. These findings reveal hidden criteria that shape regulatory decisions and enhance our understanding of conservation priorities. We recommend integrating systematic, science-based criteria into legal valuation practices, supported by collaboration between conservation scientists and legal practitioners.

Although the problem of food loss and waste is well known, and there is a desire on societal, political, and academic levels to address it, tangible actions are still lacking. Since all actors in the food supply chain must lower their food loss and waste, it is important to have insight into the actions they perceive as the most effective. In this research, a Q-study is conducted in which Flemish stakeholders across the food supply chain answered the question "What actions to reduce food loss and food waste, will have the greatest potential?". The participants ranked 63 statements about possible actions to lower food loss and waste, collected via literature review and interviews. These statements were cross-classified in seven stages of the food supply chain, by three types of measures (i.e. technical, institutional and societal). The findings show three different viewpoints: the (1) Neo-classical, (2) Consumer-oriented and (3) Transformational perspectives. Perspective one prefers technical measures, whereas the other perspectives see more potential in societal action, combined with institutional ones. The perspectives also differ in terms of the stakeholders that should act, the first perspective puts the greatest burden on the consumers, the distribution and logistics. According to the second perspective, most effort must be demanded from the households. The last perspective believes that all actors in the food supply chain should take responsibility. The identified perspectives provide relevant starting points for further research on food loss and waste reduction, in terms of testing if these perspectives still hold in other samples or when considering related topics.

Food loss and food waste put pressure on society, the environment and the economy. A variety of experimental interventions to reduce food loss and waste have been conducted, as well as several review studies. However, it remains unclear which intervention is the most effective and which characteristics contribute to the effectiveness. As there is an urgent need to reduce food loss and waste, it is important to know how this reduction can be achieved effectively. Following the PRISMA guidelines, we conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess which type of interventions are most effective in reducing food loss and waste, focusing on pretestposttest-control experiments and considering the whole food supply chain. Twenty articles meet all inclusion criteria, of which nineteen focus on consumers and nineteen concentrate on high-income countries. Overall, a significant but small effect of the food waste reduction interventions is found (dPPC = -0.258). However, not all intervention types resulted in a significant effect. Several of the tested design characteristics significantly influence the effect size (such as using a theoretical framework, the country in which the study is conducted, the type of intervention and the duration of the study). Only a few studies performed long-term follow-ups, and the interventions' effects were not found to be sustainable. Based on these findings, recommendations for future research are formulated related to three major topics: what should be examined in further research, how different food loss and waste behavioral experiments can become more consistent, and what should be reported.

Purpose We aimed to measure the variation in researchers' knowledge and attitudes towards bibliometric indicators. The focus is on mapping the heterogeneity of this metric-wiseness within and between disciplines.Design/methodology/approach An exploratory survey is administered to researchers at the Sapienza University of Rome, one of Europe's oldest and largest generalist universities. To measure metric-wiseness, we use attitude statements that are evaluated by a 5-point Likert scale. Moreover, we analyze documents of recent initiatives on assessment reform to shed light on how researchers' heterogeneous attitudes regarding and knowledge of bibliometric indicators are taken into account.Findings We found great heterogeneity in researchers' metric-wiseness across scientific disciplines. In addition, within each discipline, we observed both supporters and critics of bibliometric indicators. From the document analysis, we found no reference to individual heterogeneity concerning researchers' metric wiseness.Research limitations We used a self-selected sample of researchers from one Italian university as an exploratory case. Further research is needed to check the generalizability of our findings.Practical implications To gain sufficient support for research evaluation practices, it is key to consider researchers' diverse attitudes towards indicators.Originality/value We contribute to the current debate on reforming research assessment by providing a novel empirical measurement of researchers' knowledge and attitudes towards bibliometric indicators and discussing the importance of the obtained results for improving current research evaluation systems.

We investigate the socio-economic effects of further activating the circular value chain for clothing on the labour market in the Netherlands. We develop a value chain model to evaluate the direct gross effects of changes in production, consumption, and end-of-life activities and map the value chain, limited to the part of the clothing value chain that takes place within the geographical borders of the Netherlands. Further, we evaluate both the Dutch government's scenarios for a circular economy and a set of circular objectives that lead to an optimised projection for 2050. We find that the circular value chain for clothing can have positive effects on the Dutch labour market, including creating new jobs, and upscaling existing ones. Specifically, we evaluated the Dutch clothing value chain through "Rethink," "Reuse," and "Recycle" scenarios, which respectively reduced imports, increased job creation with potential price impacts, and prioritized waste minimization. Moreover, the optimisation results indicated that pursuing circular economy objectives boosted both gross and low-skilled labour demand, but a narrow focus on labour maximisation raised other variables, underscoring the need for balanced strategies. Effective resource minimisation reduced clothing volumes, while "Rethink" and "Reuse" strategies required less low-skilled labour compared to recycling, emphasizing targeted skill training's importance. However, focusing solely on job creation may backfire and may not lead to the best circular outcomes.

Every five years, the Dutch government employs sand replenishment to combat coastal erosion and to accommodate sea level rise. However, the transportation of sand from the North Sea to the coastline has negative societal consequences such as air pollution and habitat loss. Through a social cost-benefit analysis, this study raises the question of whether the current replenishment policy is optimal for preserving the coastline. The alternative approach studied in this analysis is the installation of the nature-based solution of shellfish reefs that hold sand and adapt to rising sea levels. Implementing shellfish beds would reduce the need for sand deposition, thereby decreasing emissions and aligning with climate goals such as the Green Deal Shipping. Moreover, shellfish provide extra benefits such as denitrification and biodiversity conservation. By weighing the costs and benefits against each other, deploying shellfish reefs for coastal defense along the Dutch coastline is found to be welfare enhancing. Despite the positive result, the sensitivity analysis reveals two nuances. First, the placement of shellfish beds is only beneficial for society when they also give provisioning services like food supply. Second, there is uncertainty regarding the sand retention capacity of shellfish beds and the ecosystem development of shellfish. Conducting pilot studies can provide more insight to reduce these uncertainties. This study raises the question of the adequacy and long-term viability of the current sand nourishment policy in the Netherlands in the context of climate change and the increased frequency of extreme weather events.

Violations of environmental regulations often involve multiple parties since companies, as well as employees of the companies, face regulatory obligations and can expend compliance-enhancing effort. When deterring such violations by punishing violators, court judges must determine which party or parties to punish with sanctions. Our study explores such sanction decisions made by Belgian judges in response to environmental offenses and the defendants’ intent to comply as captured by three key Belgian legal elements reflecting culpability: purpose, willingness, and knowledge. Our empirical results reveal that the three culpability factors play strong roles in shaping judges’ sanction decisions, especially the relative use of firm sanctions and employee sanctions. As important, our empirical results strongly demonstrate that judges appear to perceive firm and employee sanctions as complements.

Carbon leakage has become a key issue in global climate initiatives. This study aims to examine the effectiveness of various policy solutions for mitigating carbon leakage, as explored extensively in the literature. Employing a meta-regression analysis, this paper analyzes 416 leakage ratio estimates extracted from 39 economic studies published in English and Chinese between 2004 and 2022. These estimates evaluate the effects of diverse climate policies and modeling assumptions on carbon leakage. The results confirm that both 'intra-region' and 'cross-border' anti-leakage policies significantly impact carbon policy regions. The findings imply to policymakers that, although the implementation of border carbon adjustments provokes international debate under current WTO regulations, the 'intra-region' policies, which are more politically feasible, can achieve comparable effectiveness.

Experience and credence characteristics are hard to assess when consumers select food products. Therefore, consumers who are unfamiliar with specific products typically use search characteristics as a proxy for product quality. As search characteristics are pivotal in consumers' decisions, we expect them to be reflected in the resulting product prices in the beer market. Besides traditional search characteristics such as beer color or fermentation type, new search characteristics such as online consumer ratings are emerging in beer markets all over the world. Thus, we use a hedonic price estimation to learn about the relative importance of traditional versus new search characteristics in the Belgian beer market. Specifically, the beer prices for 1517 different beer products of two large beer retailers are investigated to compare the role of traditional beer characteristics—color, fermentation type, beer style, origin, brewery type, and alcohol percentage—with the role of online beer ratings from the platform RateBeer.com. We find that while traditional characteristics still play a key role in the beer market, the role of online ratings seems dependent on the retail context  [EconLit Citations: C36 Instrumental Variables Estimation, D83 Search—Communication, Q11 Agriculture—Prices, Q18 Food Policy].

We investigate consumer preferences for domestically produced white wines compared to foreign wines in Australia. A discrete choice experiment was used to analyze young Australian consumers' preferences regarding white wine and a latent class model was estimated to take preference heterogeneity into account. We examine the relationship between consumers' ethnocentrism and preferences for wine from a specific origin. Highly ethnocentric Australian wine consumers are found to strongly prefer Australian wines and to a lesser extent wine from New Zealand compared to otherwise identical French wine, confirming a country-of-origin effect. Carefully considering the information to include on wine labels helps to stimulate consumer demand in certain market segments. Producers can use information regarding consumer preferences for specific wine characteristics to put an attractive and profitable product on the market. For instance, Australian wines might have a domestic advantage over similar foreign wines, if this 'country of origin' is brought to the consumers' attention. Hence, labeling wine as 'Made in Australia' is likely to increase the willingness to buy wines amongst a significant subgroup of Australian consumers aged 18-38. Adding other specific labels such as gold or silver medals to the bottle can also attract specific customer segments.

Peer-to-peer sharing has become increasingly popular in recent years. Many digital platforms exist that allow individuals to use others’ belongings part-time. These platforms explicitly mention their green credentials, as the environmental benefits of such sharing initiatives are often taken for granted. However, there is a recent empirical literature showing evidence of the contrary. We propose a theoretical framework to analyze the economic and environmental implications of peer-to-peer sharing. We present a stylized model where a monopolist supplies a product that is suitable for rent on a sharing platform. Interestingly, we find that the existence of such a platform is typically beneficial for the monopolist, especially in the long run, when she can optimally anticipate the effects of her decisions on the sharing market. Such a scenario is not at all beneficial for consumers, especially for those who rent the good rather than buy it. Moreover, the existence of the sharing platform induces higher use and (under some likely conditions) larger production levels and shorter product lifespans. The combination of these three aspects contributes to a worse environmental impact with sharing, which provides a theoretical rationale for the aforementioned empirical studies.

Discrete choice experiments (DCEs) have become an often-used research method in food research due to their ability to uncover trade-offs made when choosing among multiple alternatives, especially when dealing with credence attributes. Insights into the main elements of the consumers' decision-making process are key to informing both public and private policies related to food production and consumption. However, DCEs are not confined to this field of study. This narrative methodological review sets out to provide a critical appraisal of the state of the art of DCEs in food research. We logically structure our review by comparing the field-independent state-of-the-art to its application in the specific food choice research domain. The comparison is presented for each of the steps required in implementing DCEs and allows for the identification of areas of improvement in best practice. We find that food research has adopted many of the methodological advances over the years, but further improvements are encouraged and outlined. Recommendations for future research are discussed.

The European Commission’s proposal for a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) to strengthen the existing Emissions Trading System (ETS) is a policy initiative that has the potential to impact carbon emissions outside of the EU. The question is whether CBAM does indeed provide an incentive to third countries to change their production technology or even to strengthen their domestic carbon pricing policy. We develop a theoretical framework and numerical simulation to investigate this question and consider Japan’s potential responses to the mechanism. Does Japan stand to gain the most from 1) Cooperating with the EU and introducing its own ETS, 2) Staying neutral with no policy response to CBAM, or 3) Contesting CBAM and introducing ‘retaliatory tariffs’ on certain European imports? We evaluate these three scenarios using a two-country stylised model of Japan and the EU as well as a numerical CGE simulation. In this numerical simulation, we introduce a sophisticated carbon pricing structure to accurately mimic the EU’s ETS and the proposed CBAM. The stylised model and the numerical simulation show that CBAM may reduce the world supply of CBAM products and their relative prices, which would worsen Japan’s terms of trade. However, due to Japan’s relatively low carbon intensity for the production of CBAM products, European importers may start importing more CBAM products from Japan and consequently, Japan may gain economic welfare. Lastly, the EU’s CBAM may lead to an increase in Japanese carbon emissions unless Japan increases its domestic carbon price and forms a “carbon club” with the EU.

The circular economy (CE) has gained prominence in recent years in government and business policies, as well as academic research. Yet, its alleged wholesomeness is increasingly questioned and few quantitative studies include both the outer (e.g. recycling) and inner circles (e.g. reduce or reuse), respectively the ex-ante least and most efficient CE strategies. By developing a supply chain equilibrium model, based on general equilibrium theory, this paper presents a modelling framework where a product-service system is introduced as a circular alternative to conventional products. Through generalised prices that cover inner and outer circle variables, targeted economic and fiscal policy measures affect overall price levels and, by consequence, operational levels of the supply chain. The rationale behind this approach relies on combining material and economic efficiency by integrating material/product life cycles with market interactions. To illustrate its performance, the model examines the rollout of a reusable plastic bottle initiative in Belgium. The results show that if circular products are perceived as substitutes for conventional products, well-targeted policies can reduce material use substantially. Furthermore, coordinating circular policies along the supply chain can improve their outcomes. However, the absence of CE data impedes model development and risks undermining the validity of the results.

Data for HPM analysis of beer prices in Belgium (stata data file) containing description of beer types

Local communities have preferences and expectations regarding mangrove ecosystems that are typically underrepresented in valuation studies. Therefore, this study identifies how the local community of Mahahual (Mexico) perceives the ecosystem services provided by the mangrove forest and how these preferences differ between households. A survey was designed by one of the authors and local stakeholders building on previous knowledge and experts (local environmental research centre and non-governmental organisation Takata and its experts in biology and coastal conservation, ecotourism businesses' owners, and the mayor of the village). The survey is used to cover a wide range of ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, recreation and cultural activities as well as improved connectivity with local seagrass beds and coral reefs. Ecosystem services were specifically chosen by biologists and ecologists of the local NGO to perfectly reflect the local mangroves ecosystem. The small land area of the village, its low population and its rapid expansion offer a unique context, aiming at preserving the natural environment while keeping in mind that the main economy is based on tourism. While mangroves are greatly appreciated for the local protective services they provide such as coastal protection, local inhabitants also care about services that have a wider impact such as biodiversity and carbon sequestration. We find that the educational background of local inhabitants plays an important role in determining the importance of local ecosystem services and that information provision can help to counterbalance this effect. We also observe that preferences for specific ecosystem services differ based on how close residents live to the mangroves and to the coast, which accentuates the different needs and ideas of the households based on their local neighbourhood.

Based on a survey of 2,106 individuals, this study aims to get a better understanding of the attitudes toward carsharing in Flanders, Belgium. Several drivers and barriers that influence household decisions to participate in a carsharing system are identified. An ordinal logit model reveals that highly educated, younger males with high ecological concerns are more likely to share cars. It is shown that living in a rural environment or owning a company car are important barriers. A parking policy aimed at discouraging private car use while stimulating sustainable mobility choices appears to be an interesting avenue for future research.

In this paper, we analyze the compelling issue of monetary valuation of a scientific publication. While many academic scholars tend to overlook the topic, as being either too difficult or even meaningless, policymakers begin to use very rough tools for evaluating publications, which have many limitations, as we will discuss in this work. The main objective of this work is to address this open problem by stimulating further discussion on the topic and future research developments. We provide an overview of different methods to value scientific publications. We discuss their main hypotheses, pros and cons by means of an illustration based on Sapienza University of Rome. Although we begin to address the issue of monetary valuation of scientific publications, presenting a range of available methods and listing the limits and benefits of each, further methodological and empirical research is still needed to comply with policy and stakeholders' needs which we expect will increase in the near future.

We explore and illustrate the potential consequences of identity salience on stated choice valuation outcomes. The dual role of individuals as citizens and as consumers is brought to the foreground when considering investments in wind energy. To this end, we use two different settings in a stated choice experiment to elicit household preferences: one based on the decision to buy a home with particular characteristics in the neighbourhood of a wind farm and one based on the decision to support a policy to locate a wind farm in the respondent's municipality. By including a shared set of attributes to describe the wind farm in both settings, we are able to analyse the impact of identity salience on stated preferences. In the home setting, identity salience has no significant effect. In the policy setting, the consumer framing mitigates (when positive) or reinforces (when negative) the identity effect of the setting for the preferences regarding the number of wind turbines, the visibility of the wind turbines and the noise levels associated with the wind park. This finding suggests that it may be easier to shift a respondent's focus from public to private than vice versa. Our results illustrate that valuation exercises triggering a different role at the individual level will likely result in different valuation outcomes. By doing so, we issue a warning to researchers and policy makers to reflect about the objectives and set-up of valuation studies when using them for policy evaluation purposes. If the context of such a study is not adequately taken into account, potentially misleading messages and policy conclusions can emerge.

Bibliometric indicators and bibliometric techniques have been used in the domains of business and economics (BE) in the context of network studies and the evaluation of universities, journals and researchers, among other purposes. Using a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis as a general framework, we present an overview of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats related to the use of mainstream bibliometrics in BE. Several weaknesses in the use of bibliometric indicators for research evaluation in BE, and, in general, are discussed. Misuse of bibliometric indicators may lead to goal displacement and gender bias. Yet, being aware of possible problems leads to opportunities for further developments and applications of bibliometrics in the field of BE. We propose that traditional research evaluation should evolve into evaluative inquiry, a method where bibliometric indicators play a role, but in which all aspects of life and work of a scientific professional can be taken into account and assessment is relabelled in positive terms such as organizational and individual development, care and support.