Between Ostrom and Nordhaus: The research landscape of sustainability economics
Publikation: Beiträge in Zeitschriften › Zeitschriftenaufsätze › Forschung › begutachtet
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in: Ecological Economics, Jahrgang 172, 106620, 01.06.2020.
Publikation: Beiträge in Zeitschriften › Zeitschriftenaufsätze › Forschung › begutachtet
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Between Ostrom and Nordhaus
T2 - The research landscape of sustainability economics
AU - Drupp, Moritz A.
AU - Baumgärtner, Stefan
AU - Meyer, Moritz
AU - Quaas, Martin F.
AU - von Wehrden, Henrik
PY - 2020/6/1
Y1 - 2020/6/1
N2 - We survey the emerging research area of sustainability economics through a quantitative full-text analysis of peer-reviewed journal publications from 1987 to 2013. To identify relevant contributions, we draw on existing definitions of sustainability economics for a keyword-based identification strategy: a combined focus on (a) the human-nature relationship, (b) the long-term uncertain future, (c) normative orientation towards sustainability, and (d) economic analysis. Our analysis of a random subsample of 343 relevant papers reveals that (i) sustainability economics is a rapidly developing research area; (ii) while theoretical contributions shaped the area in earlier years, applied work now constitutes the largest share of contributions; (iii) the research landscape can be clustered into eleven research clusters. These range from participatory governance of social-ecological systems associated with the work of Elinor Ostrom to questions of intertemporal allocation and distribution applied to climate economics associated with the work of William Nordhaus; (iv) the research area is broad in scope and heterogeneous, and there is relatively little interaction between important clusters; (v) relevant contributions are published in more than 100 journals. Ten journals publish half of all contributions, led by Ecological Economics, and 40% appear in non-economics journals, underscoring the importance of interdisciplinary dialogue.
AB - We survey the emerging research area of sustainability economics through a quantitative full-text analysis of peer-reviewed journal publications from 1987 to 2013. To identify relevant contributions, we draw on existing definitions of sustainability economics for a keyword-based identification strategy: a combined focus on (a) the human-nature relationship, (b) the long-term uncertain future, (c) normative orientation towards sustainability, and (d) economic analysis. Our analysis of a random subsample of 343 relevant papers reveals that (i) sustainability economics is a rapidly developing research area; (ii) while theoretical contributions shaped the area in earlier years, applied work now constitutes the largest share of contributions; (iii) the research landscape can be clustered into eleven research clusters. These range from participatory governance of social-ecological systems associated with the work of Elinor Ostrom to questions of intertemporal allocation and distribution applied to climate economics associated with the work of William Nordhaus; (iv) the research area is broad in scope and heterogeneous, and there is relatively little interaction between important clusters; (v) relevant contributions are published in more than 100 journals. Ten journals publish half of all contributions, led by Ecological Economics, and 40% appear in non-economics journals, underscoring the importance of interdisciplinary dialogue.
KW - Bibliographic analysis
KW - Economics
KW - Future
KW - Human–nature relationship
KW - Justice
KW - Literature
KW - Sustainability
KW - Uncertainty
KW - Vocabulary
KW - Ecosystems Research
KW - Sustainability Science
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85079855480&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2020.106620
DO - 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2020.106620
M3 - Journal articles
AN - SCOPUS:85079855480
VL - 172
JO - Ecological Economics
JF - Ecological Economics
SN - 0921-8009
M1 - 106620
ER -