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1. Dynamic Economic Resilience and Economic Recovery from Disasters: A Quantitative Assessment

   https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.12948  

   Xie, Wei; Rose, Adam; Li, Shantong; He, Jianwu; Li, Ning; Ali, Tariq (January 2018, Risk Analysis)

   Abstract This article analyzes the role of dynamic economic resilience in relation to recovery from disasters in general and illustrates its potential to reduce disaster losses in a case study of the Wenchuan earthquake of 2008. We first offer operational definitions of the concept linked to policies to promote increased levels and speed of investment in repair and reconstruction to implement this resilience. We then develop a dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model that incorporates major features of investment and traces the time‐path of the economy as it recovers with and without dynamic economic resilience. The results indicate that resilience strategies could have significantly reduced GDP losses from the Wenchuan earthquake by 47.4% during 2008–2011 by accelerating the pace of recovery and could have further reduced losses slightly by shortening the recovery by one year. The results can be generalized to conclude that shortening the recovery period is not nearly as effective as increasing reconstruction investment levels and steepening the time‐path of recovery. This is an important distinction that should be made in the typically vague and singular reference to increasing the speed of recovery in many definitions of dynamic resilience. 

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2. Directing the wind: Techno-economic feasibility of green ammonia for farmers and community economic viability

   https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2022.1070212  

   Ofori-Bah, Catherine Obiribea; Amanor-Boadu, Vincent (January 2023, Frontiers in Environmental Science)

   There has been increasing interest in low-carbon technologies to reduce climate change impacts. However, careful assessments of their implications for the vibrancy of local economies are rare. This paper employs techno-economic analysis to assess the technical and economic feasibility of investment in one such technology: local green ammonia production and its contribution to the economic viability of the local economy. The analysis considers price projection and debt financing options, and alternative energy-to-ammonia technologies. The approach is broadly applicable and is illustrated here using a case study in which 248,188 MT of traditional ammonia are replaced with local wind energy-produced ammonia for farmers in Southwest Kansas, United States. Economic feasibility is defined as the ability to accrue enough discounted cash flow at the end of the turbines’ 25-year lifespan to enable their replacement. The alternative technologies are the traditional Haber-Bosch and the emerging solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC). The total plant capital cost amounted to $781.72 million while the plant operating costs were set at $100/MT with the energy supplied by the project’s energy system. The results show how economic feasibility sensitivity to technology and financing options are evaluated and communicated to scientists, policymakers, and farmers. The 6.5 MWh/MT wind energy-to-ammonia SOEC technology presented the best economic results under all price projections. The community’s investment yielded the highest return when debt was used to finance 50% of the capital investment. Returns exceeded the average annual S&P return of about 7% from 1957 to 2021. The work shows how consideration of technology efficiencies and creative financing strategies can contribute to the economic welfare of farmers and their communities even as they contributed to reducing crop production’s carbon footprint. 

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3. Economic and Behavioral Influencers of Vaccination and Antimicrobial Use

   https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.614113  

   Wagner, Caroline E.; Prentice, Joseph A.; Saad-Roy, Chadi M.; Yang, Luojun; Grenfell, Bryan T.; Levin, Simon A.; Laxminarayan, Ramanan (December 2020, Frontiers in Public Health)

   null (Ed.)

   Despite vast improvements in global vaccination coverage during the last decade, there is a growing trend in vaccine hesitancy and/or refusal globally. This has implications for the acceptance and coverage of a potential vaccine against COVID-19. In the United States, the number of children exempt from vaccination for “philosophical belief-based” non-medical reasons increased in 12 of the 18 states that allowed this policy from 2009 to 2017 ( 1 ). Meanwhile, the overuse and misuse of antibiotics, especially in young children, have led to increasing rates of drug resistance that threaten our ability to treat infectious diseases. Vaccine hesitancy and antibiotic overuse exist side-by-side in the same population of young children, and it is unclear why one modality (antibiotics) is universally seen as safe and effective, while the other (vaccines) is seen as potentially hazardous by some. In this review, we consider the drivers shaping the use of vaccines and antibiotics in the context of three factors: individual incentives, risk perceptions, and social norms and group dynamics. We illustrate how these factors contribute to the societal and individual costs of vaccine underuse and antimicrobial overuse. Ultimately, we seek to understand these factors that are at the nexus of infectious disease epidemiology and social science to inform policy-making. 

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4. The psychology and policy of overcoming economic inequality

   https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X23001103  

   Ruggeri, Kai; Tutuska, Olivia Symone; Ladini, Giampaolo_Abate Romero; Al-Zahli, Narjes; Alexander, Natalia; Andersen, Mathias Houe; Bibilouri, Katherine; Chen, Jennifer; Doubravová, Barbora; Dugué, Tatianna; et al (August 2023, Behavioral and Brain Sciences)

   Recent arguments claim that behavioral science has focused – to its detriment – on the individual over the system when construing behavioral interventions. In this commentary, we argue that tackling economic inequality using both framings in tandem is invaluable. By studying individuals who have overcome inequality, “positive deviants,” and the system limitations they navigate, we offer potentially greater policy solutions. 

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5. Political, economic, and governance attitudes of blockchain users

   https://doi.org/10.3389/fbloc.2023.1125088  

   Korpas, Lucia M.; Frey, Seth; Tan, Joshua (March 2023, Frontiers in Blockchain)

   We present a survey to evaluate crypto-political, crypto-economic, and crypto-governance sentiment in people who are part of a blockchain ecosystem. Based on 3,710 survey responses, we describe their beliefs, attitudes, and modes of participation in crypto and investigate how self-reported political affiliation and blockchain ecosystem affiliation are associated with these. We observed polarization in questions on perceptions of the distribution of economic power, personal attitudes towards crypto, normative beliefs about the distribution of power in governance, and external regulation of blockchain technologies. Differences in political self-identification correlated with opinions on economic fairness, gender equity, decision-making power and how to obtain favorable regulation, while blockchain affiliation correlated with opinions on governance and regulation of crypto and respondents’ semantic conception of crypto and personal goals for their involvement. We also find that a theory-driven constructed political axis is supported by the data and investigate the possibility of other groupings of respondents or beliefs arising from the data. 

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