TY  - JOUR
AV  - public
JF  - Journal of Environmental Economics and Policy
EP  - 120
SN  - 2160-6552
N1  - This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Policy on 27 July 2016, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/21606544.2016.1211557.
ID  - discovery1530925
VL  - 6
N2  - Increasing material efficiency is considered to yield multiple economic and environmental benefits. This paper firstly introduces a comprehensive cost?benefit framework to systematically assess the viability of investments in material efficiency. The framework comprises several components by (1) comparing a business-as-usual scenario with a scenario of scaling up investments in material efficiency, (2) covering economic and environmental dimensions, and (3) considering direct and indirect effects. In a second step, we match the framework to existing evidence from the literature, followed by an application of the framework to a microeconomic investment project financed by a multilateral development bank. Our results suggest that material efficiency investments can yield positive net benefits, which typically increase when non-monetary dimensions are additionally taken into account. Overall, our analysis calls for a more comprehensive approach towards material efficiency investment appraisals, the internalisation of externalities, and further empirical research to better understand the implications of moving towards material efficient economies.
TI  - Investments in material efficiency: the introduction and application of a comprehensive cost?benefit framework
KW  - Competitiveness
KW  -  cost?benefit analysis
KW  -  investments
KW  -  material efficiency
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21606544.2016.1211557
SP  - 107
Y1  - 2016/07/27/
A1  - Flachenecker, F
A1  - Bleischwitz, R
A1  - Rentschler, JE
IS  - 2
ER  -