Public-private partnerships in fostering outer space innovations.

As public and private institutions recognize the role of space exploration as a catalyst for economic growth, various areas of innovation are expected to emerge as drivers of the space economy. These include space transportation, in-space manufacturing, bioproduction, in-space agriculture, nuclear launch, and propulsion systems, as well as satellite services and their maintenance. However, the current nature of space as an open-access resource and global commons presents a systemic risk for exuberant competition for space goods and services, which may result in a "tragedy of the commons" dilemma. In the race among countries to capture the value of space exploration, NASA, American research universities, and private companies can avoid any coordination failures by collaborating in a public-private research and development partnership (PPRDP) structure. We present such a structure founded upon the principles of polycentric autonomous governance, which incorporate a decentralized autonomous organization framework and specialized research clusters. By advancing an alignment of incentives among the specified participatory members, PPRDPs can play a pivotal role in stimulating open-source research by creating positive knowledge spillover effects and agglomeration externalities as well as embracing the nonlinear decomposition paradigm that may blur the distinction between basic and applied research.

Continuous adoption of online healthcare platforms: an extension to the expectation confirmation model and network externalities.

BACKGROUND: Online healthcare platforms (OHPs) promote the accessibility of health services while integrating online and offline service delivery. Continuous adoption of these platforms can reduce the information asymmetry between patients and healthcare providers. However, existing study has rarely focused on how the network externalities of these platforms influence patients' continuous adoption. Expectation Confirmation Model (ECM) explains the continuous behavior after initial adoption and reveal the factors influencing satisfaction and continuous adoption intention. Few studies have integrated network externalities with the ECM to understand patients' continuous adoption of OHPs. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to explore what factors affect the continuous adoption of OHPs based on an extension to the ECM and network externalities. We propose a comprehensive model for the continuous adoption of OHPs by patients with chronic diseases. We extend the conceptual framework by incorporating constructs related to perceived value, habits, and switching costs. METHODS: This study utilized a web-based survey to collect data from participants in China. We selected a sample of individuals who had experience with OHPs using a random sampling method. This method ensured that participants was randomly chosen from a pool of patients without any regional bias. A total of 568 questionnaires were collected and 518 valid questionnaires were obtained. Structural equation modeling was applied to assess the relationships among the constructs. Hierarchical regression analysis was utilized to examine the moderating effects, while the mediating effects were investigated using the bootstrapping approach. RESULTS: Direct network externality had significant positive impacts on the confirmation (ß = 0.232, p < 0.001) and perceived value (ß = 0.167, p < 0.010). Cross network externality had significant positive impacts on confirmation (ß = 0.307, p < 0.001) and perceived value (ß = 0.120, p < 0.05). Indirect network externality had significant positive impacts on confirmation (ß = 0.169, p < 0.010) and perceived value (ß = 0.270, p < 0.001). Confirmation had a significant positive impact on perceived value (ß = 0.205, p < 0.001) and satisfaction (ß = 0.508, p < 0.001). In addition, satisfaction had a significant positive impact on continuous adoption intention (ß = 0.579, p < 0.001). Continuous adoption intention had a significant positive impact on continuous adoption behavior (ß = 0.547, p < 0.001). Confirmation and perceived value significantly mediate the relationship between network externalities and satisfaction. Moreover, both confirmation and perceived value enhance continuous adoption intention by positively influencing satisfaction, which serves as a mediator. Additionally, confirmation directly influences satisfaction through the mediating role of perceived value. Habits and switching costs positively moderate the relationship between continuous adoption intention and behavior. CONCLUSIONS: This study contributes by expanding the incorporation of network externalities into the ECM. Results enrich the existing literature on the continuous adoption of professional online platforms.

Economic evaluation of sea-level rise adaptation strongly influenced by hydrodynamic feedbacks.

Coastal communities rely on levees and seawalls as critical protection against sea-level rise; in the United States alone, $300 billion in shoreline armoring costs are forecast by 2100. However, despite the local flood risk reduction benefits, these structures can exacerbate flooding and associated damages along other parts of the shoreline-particularly in coastal bays and estuaries, where nearly 500 million people globally are at risk from sea-level rise. The magnitude and spatial distribution of the economic impact of this dynamic, however, are poorly understood. Here we combine hydrodynamic and economic models to assess the extent of both local and regional flooding and damages expected from a range of shoreline protection and sea-level rise scenarios in San Francisco Bay, California. We find that protection of individual shoreline segments (5 to 75 km) can increase flooding in other areas by as much as 36 million m3 and damages by $723 million for a single flood event and in some cases can even cause regional flood damages that exceed the local damages prevented from protection. We also demonstrate that strategic flooding of certain shoreline segments, such as those with gradually sloping baylands and space for water storage, can help alleviate flooding and damages along other stretches of the coastline. By matching the scale of the economic assessment to the scale of the threat, we reveal the previously uncounted costs associated with uncoordinated adaptation actions and demonstrate that a regional planning perspective is essential for reducing shared risk and wisely spending adaptation resources in coastal bays.

Loss of production and animal health costs in assessing economic burden of animal disease.

This article focuses on identifying the loss of production and costs (or lack thereof) associated with livestock health as well as animal disease externalities, with the intent to estimate economy-wide burden. It limits its scope to terrestrial livestock and aquaculture, wherein economic burden is predominately determined by market forces. Losses and costs are delineated into both direct losses and costs and indirect losses and costs, as well as ex post costs and ex ante costs. These costs include not only private expenditures but also public expenditures related to the prevention of, treatment of, and response to livestock disease. This distinction is important because a primary role of government is to mitigate externalities. The article then discusses market impacts and investments. Finally, it provides selected examples and illustrative observations and discusses future directions for research and application.

Cet article examine les pertes de production et les coûts associés (ou non) à la santé animale ainsi que les externalités liées aux maladies animales, dans le but d'estimer le fardeau pour l'ensemble de l'économie. L'examen se limite à la production d'animaux terrestres et aquatiques, secteurs où le fardeau économique est principalement déterminé par les forces du marché. Les pertes et les coûts sont répartis en pertes et coûts directs et indirects, ainsi qu'en coûts ex post et ex ante. Ces coûts comprennent non seulement les dépenses privées, mais aussi les dépenses publiques liées à la prévention, au traitement et aux réponses aux maladies des animaux d'élevage. Il s'agit d'une distinction importante car l'une des fonctions premières d'un gouvernement est d'atténuer les externalités. Les auteurs examinent ensuite les impacts sur les marchés et les investissements. Pour conclure, à partir d'exemples choisis et d'observations illustrant leur propos, les auteurs proposent des voies d'exploration pour la recherche et ses applications.

Este artículo se centra en determinar las pérdidas de producción y los costos (o la ausencia de ellos) asociados con las externalidades de la sanidad del ganado y las enfermedades animales, con el objetivo de estimar su impacto en toda la economía. El ámbito del artículo se limita a la ganadería terrestre y la acuicultura, donde el impacto económico está principalmente determinado por las fuerzas del mercado. Las pérdidas y los costos se clasifican en pérdidas y costos directos e indirectos, así como en costos ex post y ex ante. Dichos costos incluyen no solo los gastos privados, sino también los gastos públicos relacionados con la prevención y el tratamiento de las enfermedades del ganado y la respuesta ante estas, una distinción que es importante habida cuenta de que una de las principales funciones del gobierno es mitigar las externalidades. En el artículo se analizan a continuación las repercusiones en el mercado y las inversiones y, por último, se presentan algunos ejemplos y observaciones ilustrativas y se examinan las orientaciones futuras de la investigación y sus aplicaciones.

Combining life-cycle assessment and linear programming to optimize social fertilizer costs.

This paper focuses on the role of fertilizers within regional nutrient cycles. Bio-based fertilizers can contribute to regional nutrient circularity, but the question remains whether production and consumption of bio-based fertilizers is beneficial to the farmer and the environment. Therefore, both farmers' private costs and environmental externalities should be taken into account. We formulate a farm-level multi-objective optimization model by considering a range of fertilizers, their costs and the environmental consequences associated with their production and use. The cost-minimization approach is applied to a conceptualized Flemish leek farmer aiming to safeguard nutrient uptake while being constrained by nutrient standards and the availability of on-farm residues. Our results suggest that mineral fertilizers have an important role in the fertilizer mix despite their environmental externalities. Nevertheless, there is also a role for bio-based fertilizers. These results have implications for farmers and policymakers wishing to internalize fertilizer externalities.

Planetary Energy Flow and Entropy Production Rate by Earth from 2002 to 2023.

In this work, satellite data from the Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments are analyzed to determine how the global absorbed sunlight and global entropy production rates have changed from 2002 to 2023. The data is used to test hypotheses derived from the Maximum Power Principle (MPP) and Maximum Entropy Production Principle (MEP) about the evolution of Earth's surface and atmosphere. The results indicate that both the rate of absorbed sunlight and global entropy production have increased over the last 20 years, which is consistent with the predictions of both hypotheses. Given the acceptance of the MPP or MEP, some peripheral extensions and nuances are discussed.

Social cost--benefit analysis of solid waste management options with application to Mumbai, India.

Managing solid waste continues to be an environmental, technical and economic challenge, especially for developing countries. Though these countries' urban local bodies (ULBs) are moving up the waste management hierarchy, most waste is still openly dumped. One key reason for this choice is the non-accounting of (a) social costs associated with open dumping (OD) and (b) direct/indirect benefits of other options. The current study conducts a complete social cost-benefit analysis (SCBA) comparing OD to sanitary landfilling, composting, bio-methanation, incineration and gasification alternatives. The study finds that when only private costs/benefits are considered, a mix of OD and sanitary landfills is preferred; however, when external costs/benefits are factored in, the mix shifts towards alternatives like incineration and gasification. These learnings from the SCBA are then applied to Mumbai, which generates 9000 tonnes of waste daily. To determine the optimal mix for Mumbai ULB, a constrained optimization exercise is carried out considering the technical feasibility of the alternatives and the ULB's capital budget. The study finds that with the current practice of OD, the net present value (NPV) of the social costs over a 30-year horizon will be over US$ 6-9 billion. However, even if one-fifth of the ULB's capital budget is allocated towards other waste management alternatives, the mix would shift towards sophisticated technologies and the NPV of social costs would reduce to around half that amount.

Cleaning Up without Messing Up: Maximizing the Benefits of Plastic Clean-Up Technologies through New Regulatory Approaches.

As the global plastics crisis grows, numerous technologies have been invented and implemented to recover plastic pollution from the environment. Although laudable, unregulated clean-up technologies may be inefficient and have unintended negative consequences on ecosystems, for example, through bycatch or removal of organic matter important for ecosystem functions. Despite these concerns, plastic clean-up technologies can play an important role in reducing litter in the environment. As the United Nations Environment Assembly is moving toward an international, legally binding treaty to address plastic pollution by 2024, the implementation of plastic clean-up technologies should be regulated to secure their net benefits and avoid unintended damages. Regulation can require environmental impact assessments and life cycle analysis to be conducted predeployment on a case-by-case basis to determine their effectiveness and impact and secure environmentally sound management. During operations catch-efficiency and bycatch of nonlitter items, as well as waste management of recovered litter, should be documented. Data collection for monitoring, research, and outreach to mitigate plastic pollution is recommended as added value of implementation of clean-up technologies.

Allocating China's CO2 Emissions Based on Economic Welfare Gains from Environmental Externalities.

To achieve carbon neutrality (i.e., net zero carbon emissions) by 2060, China must make significant changes in its socioeconomic systems, including appropriately allocating emissions responsibility. Traditional methods of delineating responsibilities (such as production-based and consumption-based accounting) can lead to double counting when applied simultaneously and therefore difficulty in determining responsibilities of different agents. An alternative approach based on economic welfare gains from environmental externalities has been refined, ensuring that the responsibilities of consumers and producers add up to the total emissions. The application of this approach to 48 countries and 31 Chinese provinces reveals that regions with less elastic supply and demand, such as Hebei in China and Russia, have higher responsibilities. Furthermore, larger externalities associated with unitary product value shift the burden of obligations from producers to consumers. Regions with high levels of wealth and carbon-intensive imports, such as Zhejiang and Guangdong in China, as well as the United States, typically have higher consumer-based accounting (CBA) emissions than production-based accounting (PBA) emissions and, as a result, redistributed responsibilities between PBA and CBA emissions. The new distribution results vary significantly from PBA or CBA emissions, indicating opportunities for more comprehensive and accessible policy goals.

Life Cycle Air Pollution, Greenhouse Gas, and Traffic Externality Benefits and Costs of Electrifying Uber and Lyft.

Transportation network companies (TNCs), such as Uber and Lyft, have pledged to fully electrify their ridesourcing vehicle fleets by 2030 in the United States. In this paper, we introduce AgentX, a novel agent-based model built in Julia for simulating ridesourcing services with high geospatial and temporal resolution. We then instantiate this model to estimate the life cycle air pollution, greenhouse gas, and traffic externality benefits and costs of serving rides based on Chicago TNC trip data from 2019 to 2022 with fully electric vehicles. We estimate that electrification reduces life cycle greenhouse gas emissions by 40-45% (9-10¢ per trip) but increases life cycle externalities from criteria air pollutants by 6-11% (1-2¢ per trip) on average across our simulations, which represent demand patterns on weekdays and weekends across seasons during prepandemic, pandemic, and post-vaccination periods. A novel finding of our work, enabled by our high resolution simulation, is that electrification may increase deadheading for TNCs due to additional travel to and from charging stations. This extra vehicle travel increases estimated congestion, crash risk, and noise externalities by 2-3% (2-3¢ per trip). Overall, electrification reduces net external costs to society by 3-11% (5-24¢ per trip), depending on the assumed social cost of carbon.

The social value of a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine: Willingness to pay estimates from four western countries.

SARS-CoV-2 vaccines give rise to positive externalities on population health, society and the economy in addition to protecting the health of vaccinated individuals. Hence, the social value of such a vaccine exceeds its market value. This paper estimates the willingness to pay (WTP) for a hypothetical SARS-CoV-2 vaccine (or shadow prices), in four countries, namely the United States (US), the United Kingdom, Spain and Italy during the first wave of the pandemic when COVID-19 vaccines were in development but not yet approved. WTP estimates are elicited using a payment card method to avoid "yea saying" biases, and we study the effect of protest responses, sample selection bias, as well as the influence of trust in government and risk exposure when estimating the WTP. Our estimates suggest evidence of an average value of a hypothetical vaccine of 100-200 US dollars once adjusted for purchasing power parity. Estimates are robust to a number of checks.

Orbital-use fees could more than quadruple the value of the space industry.

The space industry's rapid recent growth represents the latest tragedy of the commons. Satellites launched into orbit contribute to-and risk damage from-a growing buildup of space debris and other satellites. Collision risk from this orbital congestion is costly to satellite operators. Technological and managerial solutions-such as active debris removal or end-of-life satellite deorbit guidelines-are currently being explored by regulatory authorities. However, none of these approaches address the underlying incentive problem: satellite operators do not account for costs they impose on each other via collision risk. Here, we show that an internationally harmonized orbital-use fee can correct these incentives and substantially increase the value of the space industry. We construct and analyze a coupled physical-economic model of commercial launches and debris accumulation in low-Earth orbit. Similar to carbon taxes, our model projects an optimal fee that rises at a rate of 14% per year, equal to roughly $235,000 per satellite-year in 2040. The long-run value of the satellite industry would more than quadruple by 2040-increasing from around $600 billion under business as usual to around $3 trillion. In contrast, we project that purely technological solutions are unlikely to fully address the problem of orbital congestion. Indeed, we find debris removal sometimes worsens economic damages from congestion by increasing launch incentives. In other sectors, addressing the tragedy of the commons has often been a game of catch-up with substantial social costs. The infant space industry can avert these costs before they escalate.

Capitalisation of multiple ecosystems on property prices in Auckland, New Zealand.

Ecosystems and their associated services have become essential in policymaking as they often have implications for the welfare of those who live nearby. Coupled with the shift toward integrating green infrastructure, ecosystem services, and nature-based solutions in urban and environmental planning, ecosystems may capitalise on property prices. But a potential phenomenon in applications of hedonic prices models is the offsetting between amenities and disamenities values, which may result in insignificant marginal effects. Some strategies to mitigate this phenomenon involve introducing a greater categorisation of open spaces and housing submarkets typology. Hence, this paper explores the capitalisation patterns of 14 terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems across the housing market segments of Auckland, New Zealand's largest city. We used a dataset of 274 thousand sales transactions between January 2011 and December 2019. Models are estimated via OLS and unconditional quantile regressions (UQR) to account for heterogeneity, outliers and heavy-tailed distributions. UQR produce more accurate estimates of the implicit prices and lead to more effective policy recommendations. We find multiple capitalisation patterns across the prices distribution and confirm offsetting effects when ecosystems are not controlled as separate variables. This paper informs land-use decisions involving the preservation or creation of natural spaces in residential areas and improves our understanding of the interaction between their economic valuation and regional diversity.

Valuing bioeconomic impacts of regulation on nutrient loads mediated by invasive mussels in Lake Michigan.

Current calls to correct the perturbed ecosystems and nutrient imbalances of the Laurentian Great Lakes focus on setting target nutrient levels that will be met by environmental and economic regulations to reduce the flow of excess nutrients into the lakes. While these standard types of regulations have been successful in the past, it is unclear whether they will achieve similar ecological and economic successes now amid possible ecosystem regime shifts triggered by invasive mussels. We compute the bioeconomic costs and benefits of hypothetical regulations designed to target nutrient loads in present-day Lake Michigan through agricultural operations, which are known to be nonpoint source polluters of the aquatic ecosystem network. Our results show how reducing nutrient loads may exacerbate spatially disparate ecosystem issues that generate overall economic losses. Conversely, and counterintuitively, allowing for more nutrient loading could generate economic gains over our assessment timeframe. We determine that implementation of standard nutrient target policies are costly and likely inadequate for current dreissenid-affected aquatic ecosystems experiencing nutrient imbalances because they disregard the interactive role of invasive mussels in nutrient cycling.

Exploring socio-economic externalities of development scenarios. An analysis of EU regions from 2008 to 2016.

A great debate around development scenarios has come to define conversations around the economy and the environment, two dimensions that struggle to find a proper balance. In this paper we apply unconditional growth model analyses to a new and unique dataset of European regions between 2008 and 2016 and identify four development scenarios - green growth, green de-growth, black growth and black de-growth - characterized by different relationships between CO2 emissions and economic growth. We then map European regions across these four scenarios and describe the differences that occurred among regions in terms of socio-economic externalities, mainly competences, investments and well-being. Drawing on our analyses, we contribute to the debate on development scenarios and ecological macro-economics, as well as discuss implications for sustainability policy and research.

Life Cycle Assessment and Cost-Benefit Analysis of Technologies in Water Resource Recovery Facilities: The Case of Sludge Pyrolysis.

In Europe, sewage sludge is mostly used in agriculture (49%) or incinerated (25%). Technologies for sludge management that can support the transformation of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) to water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs) are emerging. Sludge pyrolysis is one of them. It can generate two main high-value co-products: heat and biochar. Moreover, biochar can be transformed into activated carbon. The economic and environmental impacts of sludge pyrolysis and its comparison to the direct application of sludge in agriculture and incineration are unknown. Therefore, we applied a life cycle assessment (LCA) and a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of sludge pyrolysis. We quantified environmental externalities in an LCA and then applied the benefit transfer method to monetize these externalities, which were included in an economic CBA. Pyrolysis reduced impacts in five to nine LCA categories and had a positive economic net present value (NPV) compared to using sludge in agriculture. Pyrolysis with biochar production was not better than incineration, showing increased impacts in nine categories and negative NPVs (-19 to -22 €/t sludge). The factor driving differences between the alternatives was the assumed CO2 externality price (164 €/ton CO2-eq) and the removal rate of pharmaceutical micropollutants of the sludge-based activated carbon. High uncertainty in environmental prices is one of the limitations of our study.

Spreading the disease: Protest in times of pandemics.

This study analyzes the impact of large anti-lockdown protests on the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in Germany. Since protesters at such large gatherings are very mobile and largely neglect SARS-CoV-2 containment strategies, they may contribute to the regional transmission of the coronavirus. Employing novel data on bus connections of travel companies specialized in driving protesters to these gatherings, and exploiting the timing of two large-scale demonstrations in November 2020, we estimate the causal impact of these protests on the spread of SARS-CoV-2 using an event study framework. Our findings imply sizable increases in infection rates in protesters' origin regions after these demonstrations. A month after the protests, treated areas face a relative increase in infection rates up to 35% compared to non-treated areas. Our results shed light on public health consequences of behavior that ignores potential externalities for the society during a pandemic.

Fine particulate matter damages and value added in the US economy.

Emissions of most pollutants that result in fine particulate matter (PM2.5) formation have been decreasing in the United States. However, this trend has not been uniform across all sectors or regions of the economy. We use integrated assessment models (IAMs) to compute marginal damages for PM2.5-related emissions for each county in the contiguous United States and match location-specific emissions with these marginal damages to compute economy-wide gross external damage (GED) due to premature mortality. We note 4 key findings: First, economy-wide, GED has decreased by more than 20% from 2008 to 2014. Second, while much of the air pollution policies have focused to date on the electricity sector, damages from farms are now larger than those from utilities. Indeed, farms have become the largest contributor to air pollution damages from PM2.5-related emissions. Third, 4 sectors, comprising less than 20% of the national gross domestic product (GDP), are responsible for ∼75% of GED attributable to economic activities. Fourth, uncertainty in GED estimates tends to be high for sectors with predominantly ground-level emissions because these emissions are usually estimated and not measured. These findings suggest that policymakers should target further emissions reductions from such sectors, particularly in transportation and agriculture.

Efficient Matching-Based Parallel Task Offloading in IoT Networks.

Fog computing is one of the major components of future 6G networks. It can provide fast computing of different application-related tasks and improve system reliability due to better decision-making. Parallel offloading, in which a task is split into several sub-tasks and transmitted to different fog nodes for parallel computation, is a promising concept in task offloading. Parallel offloading suffers from challenges such as sub-task splitting and mapping of sub-tasks to the fog nodes. In this paper, we propose a novel many-to-one matching-based algorithm for the allocation of sub-tasks to fog nodes. We develop preference profiles for IoT nodes and fog nodes to reduce the task computation delay. We also propose a technique to address the externalities problem in the matching algorithm that is caused by the dynamic preference profiles. Furthermore, a detailed evaluation of the proposed technique is presented to show the benefits of each feature of the algorithm. Simulation results show that the proposed matching-based offloading technique outperforms other available techniques from the literature and improves task latency by 52% at high task loads.

Valuing improved water services and negative environmental externalities from seawater desalination technology: A choice experiment from the Galápagos.

While seawater desalination technologies can improve drinking water supply, they can also generate significant environmental externalities. A choice experiment was implemented to investigate household preferences for potential trade-offs between improved water services and environmental impacts from seawater desalination in the Galápagos Islands. Our results indicate that households are willing to pay for water quality improvements, and for protection of coastal ecosystems and marine organisms. In contrast, households seem indifferent regarding water availability and potential impacts on air quality. Our findings also suggest that respondents who consistently reject the proposed desalination project tend to be less affluent and have stronger environmental preferences than those who support it. It is concluded that stated-preference studies on improved water services should also elicit preferences for potential environmental effects of the proposed water technology.