About this Research Topic
Unprecedented increases in the use of natural resources and materials call for a swift reshaping of production and consumption towards greater resource efficiency and circularity. The transition towards a circular economy is key to support the delicate balance between sustainability and human development while tackling the concurrent crises on climate, biodiversity, human health, and food and energy security.
However, the circular transition presents us multiple fundamental challenges. Circular business models and lifecycles require structural changes in supply chains and production technologies both at the global and local scales. End-users’ consumption attitudes and preferences need to readjust and to transform into actual circular behavior. Public policies struggle coordinating the variety and heterogeneity of actors involved and choosing among the multiple transition strategies available.
Science should support all stakeholders, both in private and public spaces, providing guidelines on alternative options and tools to assess unintended adverse impacts. Quantitative analyses and modeling are key scientific contributions supporting the transition towards the circular economy by enabling policy design and evaluation, the assessment of business models profitability and industry-level impacts, the protection from rebound effects and Jevons paradoxes due to macroeconomic feedbacks, and the management of spillovers across commodities and industries.
This Research Topic thus aims at collecting recent advancements in the multi- and inter-disciplinary modeling of different and often alternative strategies for implementing the circular economy, and at assessing how these approaches account for all the mechanisms mentioned above. This Research Topic is focused in particular on quantitative approaches that are or could be applied to support policy design and to monitor the progress of the transition towards a circular economy.
Research areas may include (but not limited to) the following:
Environment-economy modeling and other inter- and cross-disciplinary approaches coupling or integrating economic mechanisms with environmental impacts, material flows, and life cycle assessments
Approaches to model the macroeconomic impacts of circular economy, such as input-output, computable general equilibrium, and agent-based models
Hybrid input-output approaches investigating the circular economy by accounting for both monetary value flows and physical flows
Econometric analyses of circular economy strategies and business models
Applications of modeling and empirical analyses to support policy design of strategies for the transition towards circularity
Approaches to monitor the progress of circularity in lifecycles, supply chains, and business models across industries and commodities
General and partial equilibrium modeling of waste streams
Modeling of supply chain and life cycle transitions towards circularity
Comparative analyses of costs and cost functions of alternative circular economy strategies at the scale of individual firms or industries
Cognitive and socially aware models of circular economy strategies and business models requiring changes in attitudes or behavior of end-users
Investments, bottlenecks, and ancillary transitions (e.g., those associated with digital technologies, workforce skills, and reverse logistics) to implement circular economy strategies
Financial costs of circular economy strategies across sectors
Market failures and missing markets in circular economy business models
Mechanism design and monetization of externalities in circular economy strategies
Public vs. private funding mechanisms for circular economy strategies
Methodologies and reviews for all above
In this Research Topic, the following manuscript types are welcome: original research articles, systematic reviews, mini reviews as well as perspectives, opinions, and practice reviews.
However, the circular transition presents us multiple fundamental challenges. Circular business models and lifecycles require structural changes in supply chains and production technologies both at the global and local scales. End-users’ consumption attitudes and preferences need to readjust and to transform into actual circular behavior. Public policies struggle coordinating the variety and heterogeneity of actors involved and choosing among the multiple transition strategies available.
Science should support all stakeholders, both in private and public spaces, providing guidelines on alternative options and tools to assess unintended adverse impacts. Quantitative analyses and modeling are key scientific contributions supporting the transition towards the circular economy by enabling policy design and evaluation, the assessment of business models profitability and industry-level impacts, the protection from rebound effects and Jevons paradoxes due to macroeconomic feedbacks, and the management of spillovers across commodities and industries.
This Research Topic thus aims at collecting recent advancements in the multi- and inter-disciplinary modeling of different and often alternative strategies for implementing the circular economy, and at assessing how these approaches account for all the mechanisms mentioned above. This Research Topic is focused in particular on quantitative approaches that are or could be applied to support policy design and to monitor the progress of the transition towards a circular economy.
Research areas may include (but not limited to) the following:
Environment-economy modeling and other inter- and cross-disciplinary approaches coupling or integrating economic mechanisms with environmental impacts, material flows, and life cycle assessments
Approaches to model the macroeconomic impacts of circular economy, such as input-output, computable general equilibrium, and agent-based models
Hybrid input-output approaches investigating the circular economy by accounting for both monetary value flows and physical flows
Econometric analyses of circular economy strategies and business models
Applications of modeling and empirical analyses to support policy design of strategies for the transition towards circularity
Approaches to monitor the progress of circularity in lifecycles, supply chains, and business models across industries and commodities
General and partial equilibrium modeling of waste streams
Modeling of supply chain and life cycle transitions towards circularity
Comparative analyses of costs and cost functions of alternative circular economy strategies at the scale of individual firms or industries
Cognitive and socially aware models of circular economy strategies and business models requiring changes in attitudes or behavior of end-users
Investments, bottlenecks, and ancillary transitions (e.g., those associated with digital technologies, workforce skills, and reverse logistics) to implement circular economy strategies
Financial costs of circular economy strategies across sectors
Market failures and missing markets in circular economy business models
Mechanism design and monetization of externalities in circular economy strategies
Public vs. private funding mechanisms for circular economy strategies
Methodologies and reviews for all above
In this Research Topic, the following manuscript types are welcome: original research articles, systematic reviews, mini reviews as well as perspectives, opinions, and practice reviews.
Keywords: Circular Economy, Sustainability, Environment-Economy Modeling, Economic Feedback, Material Efficiency, Policy Analysis.
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
