Economics of Industrial Ecology Materials Structural Change

The use of economic modeling techniques in industrial ecology research provides distinct advantages over the customary approach, which focuses on the physical description of material flows. The thirteen chapters of Economics of Industrial Ecology integrate the natural science and technological dimensions of industrial ecology with a rigorous economic approach and by doing so contribute to the advancement of this emerging field. Using a variety of modeling techniques (including econometric, partial and general equilibrium, and input-output models) and applying them to a wide range of materials, economic sectors, and countries, these studies analyze the driving forces behind material flows and structural changes in order to offer guidance for economically and socially feasible policy solutions. After a survey of concepts and relevant research that provides a useful background for the chapters that follow, the book presents historical analyses of structural change from statistical and decomposition approaches; a range of models that predict structural change on the national and regional scale under different policy scenarios; two models that can be used to analyze waste management and recycling operations; and, adopting the perspective of local scale, an analysis of the dynamics of eco-industrial parks in Denmark and the Netherlands. The book concludes with a discussion of the policy implications of an economic approach to industrial ecology. Jeroen C. J. M. van den Bergh is Professor of Environmental Economics in the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration and Professor of Nature, Water, and Space in the Institute of Environmental Studies at Free University, Amsterdam. Marco A. Janssen is Associate Research Scientist at the Center for the Study of Institutions, Population, and Environmental Change at Indiana University."There have long been calls for the integration of economics and industrial ecology. This book assembles a number of important works--especially on integrated modeling of physical and economic systems--that form an important contribution to the industrial ecology literature." --Reid Lifset, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, editor, Journal of Industrial Ecology "As the first text focused on this subject, Economics of Industrial Ecology fills a big hole in the literature of the field. It moves the interdisciplinary claim of industrial ecology a long way forward." --John R. Ehrenfeld, Executive Director, International Society for Industrial Ecology "This is one of the first books that focuses primarily on the economics of industrial ecology, without ignoring the scientific and analytical treatment of its problems." --Arpad Horvath, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley