This paper provides a contemporary analysis of how research issues have developed in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management (JEEM) over the four decades of its existence. We have classified the articles in the journal along five dimensions: content, methods, environmental media, the regional dimension of studies, and cross-cutting issues. While up to about 10 years ago, non-market valuation and cost-benefit analysis, natural resource economics, and environmental policy instruments represented the lion’s share of articles published in the journal, more recently we observe a significant shift towards a more diversified array of research areas, with climate change and energy issues finding their way into the journal. In addition, increasing methodological plurality becomes apparent, reflected in a significant shift away from economic theory and towards empirical approaches. We also analyze key distinctions between the major environmental economics journals. Finally, we analyze JEEM’s external influence on leading general economics (A+) journals. We find that that A+ citations are positively correlated with a focus on climate change economics, market-based environmental policies and policy comparisons, the use of econometric and statistical methods or experimental approaches, and negatively correlated with a focus on water pollution and other pollutants such as pesticides.

Introduction

The aim of this paper is to provide a contemporary analysis of how research issues have developed in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management (JEEM) over the four decades of its existence. In his citation analysis, Hamermesh (2013) warns against mere navel-gazing: “One hopes that the rationale for this activity is that it stimulates more than just a prurient interest, and that it can enhance our understanding of the process of scientific discovery, the nature of interpersonal interactions, and the role of rewards and incentives in stimulating activity.” To our knowledge, the present paper is the first to examine JEEM’s progress in the 21st century. The research behind it is motivated by interest in a series of key environmental and socioeconomic issues that have altered the foundations for modern-day environmental economics research. Public attitudes towards environmental issues have changed over the last two decades. International surveys like the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) still rank air and water pollution as the primary environmental problems in most countries. Notably the growth of the Chinese economy has taken place at the expense of hazardous air pollution levels in densely populated urban areas.1 But next to pollution issues, climate change has become the most prominent environmental problem around the globe (Smith et al. 2017). This has spawned far-reaching international agreements and a variety of mitigation policies. Other important environmental problems are the loss of ecosystem services and biodiversity, waste-management, deforestation, urban sprawl, resource depletion in general, and energy use in particular. The diffusion of renewable energy technologies such as solar and wind power has made significant progress, and the use of biofuels has become an important factor in many countries. Besides major catastrophes such as Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the large oil spill surrounding the Deepwater Horizon in 2010, the early 2000s are remarkable for a peak in resource prices, most notably for crude oil.