We consider a heterogeneous agent-based economic model where economic agents have strictly bounded rationality and where income allocation strategies evolve through selective imitation. Income is calculated by a Cobb-Douglas type production function, and selection of strategies for imitation...

We raise fundamental questions about macroeconomics relevant to escaping the financial-economic crisis and shifting to a sustainable economy. First, the feasibility of decoupling environmental pressure from aggregate income is considered. Decoupling as a single environmental strategy is found to...

The debate on growth versus the environment is usually summarized as optimists believing in limitless growth versus pessimists seeing environmental and resource limits to growth. This opposition defines the main strategies: namely, striving for green growth versus some anti-growth approach. In...

We consider the microfoundations controversy from the perspective of economic evolution. Although the analogy between biology and economics has been noted before, it has rarely focused on clarifying the micro–macro distinction in economic theory and modelling. The micro–macro debate is more...

The search for a framework to study globalisation, economics and ecology for nature conservation andbiodiversity protection requires the integration of concepts, theories and models from economics andecology. This allows for the study of interactions between economic and ecological processes,...

This paper gives a concise overview of environmental-economicanalysis. Important issues and modern developments in the field aresurveyed in a systematic way. Next, the concept of sustainabledevelopment is discussed, as it has dominated environmental economicsfor almost a decade now. In addition,...

Regional economic activities require materials that can be extracteddomestically or imported from other regions. Analysis of optimalpatterns ofcombined economic development and materials use should be discussedinrelation to trade and the environment. A model is presented thatoptimiseslong-term...

The search for frameworks and indicators of sustainable development has taken a prominent place in this journal. However, some specific aspects have received little or no attention, notably the spatial dimension and the role of international trade in indicator development. Moreover, many...

Theoretical and empirical aspects of policy failures due to subsidies are discussed in the context of international trade. A general classification of subsidies that cause environmental externalities is presented. The economic and environmental impacts of producer subsidies on international...

Most insights of environmental economics are in line with the standard neoclassicaleconomic model of rational behaviour, formulated in terms of maximization of utility ingeneral, or profits in particular. The standard theory of environmental policy is a casein point. However, the maximization...