The economics of tipping points: some recent modeling and experimental advances

Li, C.-Z., A.-S. Crépin, and T. Lindahl. 2024. The economics of tipping points: some recent modeling and experimental advances. International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics 18(4):385-442.

This paper provides a review of the economics of tipping points in natural resources and climate change economics, examining recent advances in theoretical modeling and controlled experiments. We begin with the non-convexity models as a theoretical foundation, provide a typology of the resulting deterministic tipping points, and discuss their implications for management. Then, we focus on hazard rate modeling for optimal resource management with stochastic...

Triple bottom line or trilemma? Global tradeoff s between prosperity, inequality, and the environment

Wu, T., J. C. Rocha, K. Berry, T. Chaigneau, M. Hamann, E. Lindqvist, J. Qiu, C. Schill, A. Shephon, A.-S. Crepin, and C. Folke. 2024. Triple bottom line or trilemma? Global tradeoff s between prosperity, inequality, and the environment. World Development 178:106595.

A key aim of sustainable development is the joint achievement of prosperity, equality, and environmental integrity: in other words, material living standards that are high, broadly-distributed, and low-impact. This has often been called the “triple bottom line”. But instead, what if there is a “trilemma” that inhibits the simultaneous achievement of these three goals? We analysed international patterns and trends in the relationships between per-capita gross national income, the Gini coefficient for...

Emergence of social-psychological barriers to social-ecological resilience: from causes to solutions

Mathias, J.-D., J. M. Anderies, A.-S. Crépin, M. Dambrun, T. Lindahl, and J. Norberg. 2024. Emergence of social-psychological barriers to social-ecological resilience: from causes to solutions. Ecology and Society 29(2).

This study explores social-psychological barriers that may affect resilience in the context of sustainability. These barriers can be understood as unobserved processes that reduce the capacity of a social-ecological system to recover after a perturbation or transformation. Analyzing social-psychological processes enables us to distinguish passive and active processes, at the individual and collective levels. Our work suggests that interacting social and psychological processes should be...

Titanic lessons for Spaceship Earth to account for human behavior in institutional design

Lindahl, T., J. M. Anderies, A.-S. Crépin, K. Jónás, C. Schill, J. C. Cárdenas, C. Folke, G. J. Hofstede, M. A. Janssen, J.-D. Mathias, and S. Polasky. 2024. Titanic lessons for Spaceship Earth to account for human behavior in institutional design. npj Climate Action 3(1):1-9.

Combating environmental degradation requires global cooperation. We here argue that institutional designs for such efforts need to account for human behavior. The voyage of the Titanic serves as an analogous case to learn from, and we use behavioral insights to identify critical aspects of human behavior that serve as barriers or opportunities for addressing the challenges we face. We identify a set of public goods...

Beijer Institute Annual Report 2023/2024

Annual report. 2023/2024. The Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics

Evolution of the polycrisis: Anthropocene traps that challenge global sustainability

Søgaard Jørgensen, P., R. E. V. Jansen, D. I. Avila Ortega, L. Wang-Erlandsson, J. F. Donges, H. Österblom, P. Olsson, M. Nyström, S. J. Lade, T. Hahn, C. Folke, G. D. Peterson, and A.-S. Crépin. 2023. Evolution of the polycrisis: Anthropocene traps that challenge global sustainability. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 379(1893):20220261.

The Anthropocene is characterized by accelerating change and global challenges of increasing complexity. Inspired by what some have called a polycrisis, we explore whether the human trajectory of increasing complexity and influence on the Earth system could become a form of trap for humanity. Based on an adaptation of the evolutionary traps concept to a global human context, we present results from a participatory mapping....

Response diversity as a sustainability strategy

Walker, B., A.S. Crepin, M. Nyström, J.M. Anderies, E. Andersson, T. Elmqvist, C. Queiroz, S. Barrett, E. Bennett, J.C. Cardenas, S.R. Carpenter, F.S. Chapin III, A. de Zeeuw, J. Fischer, C. Folke, S. Levin, K. Nyborg, S. Polasky, K. Segerson, K. Seto, M. Scheffer, J.F. Shogren, A. Tavoni, J. van den Bergh, E.U. Weber, and J.R. Vincent. 2023. Response diversity as a sustainability strategy. Nature Sustainability 6:621-629.

Financial advisers recommend a diverse portfolio to respond to market fluctuations across sectors. Similarly, nature has evolved a diverse portfolio of species to maintain ecosystem function amid environmental fluctuations. In urban planning, public health, transport and communications, food production, and other domains, however, this feature often seems ignored. As we enter an era of unprecedented turbulence at the planetary level, we argue that ample responses...

Sanctioned quotas versus information provisioning for community wildlife conservation in Zimbabwe: A framed field experiment approach

Ntuli, H., A.S. Crépin, C. Schill, and E. Muchapondwa. 2023. Sanctioned quotas versus information provisioning for community wildlife conservation in Zimbabwe: A framed field experiment approach. Environmental and Resource Economics 84(3):775-823.

We investigate the behavioural responses of natural common-pool resource users to three policy interventions—sanctioned quotas, information provisioning, and a combination of both. We focus on situations in which users find utility in multiple resources (pastures and wild animal stocks) that all stem from the same ecosystem with complex dynamics, and management could trigger a regime shift, drastically altering resource regrowth. We performed a framed field...

Special issue in honour of Karl-Göran Mäler

Sterner, T., E.B. Barbier, and A.S. Crépin. 2023. Special issue in honour of Karl-Göran Mäler. Environmental and Resource Economics 84(3):649-876.

Spreading environmental economics worldwide

Sterner, T., E.B. Barbier, and A.S. Crépin. 2023. Spreading environmental economics worldwide. Environmental and Resource Economics 84(3):649-657.