anna auza

Area: biodiversity

Explore research on biodiversity, conservation, ecosystem services, and environmental policy. This collection examines how biodiversity shapes social capital, economic systems, institutions, climate resilience, and sustainable development through applied environmental and ecological economics.

  • How Do Energy Price, Density, and Gini Changes Explain Biodiversity Outcomes? The Empirical Case of the United States

    Abstract

    Biodiversity is diminishing and will continue to do so in the coming decades as human-caused biodiversity changes occur in both the developed and developing worlds. Using data from the United States of America for a cross-section of 39 states in 2010, this study merged the aspects of energy economics and income inequality, aiming to explain biodiversity in the developed world and find that there are opposite effects at play. On the one hand, more energy density in a state has a biodiversity-diminishing impact, and higher energy prices protect biodiverse areas. On the other hand, the dynamics of income inequality have a surprising effect: the more unequal a state’s income has become in recent decades, the more biodiverse land is being protected. Thus, the rise in inequality is associated with more biodiverse land. Finally, this article discussed the linkages with the existing literature and provided policy recommendations.

    Keywords

    Energy consumption; biodiversity; energy transition; environmental economics; energy economics

    Citation

    Auza, A., Fuinhas, J. A., Chenari, B., & Saadatian, S. (2025). How Do Energy Price, Density, and Gini Changes Explain Biodiversity Outcomes? The Empirical Case of the United States. Sustainability, 17(6), 2605. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17062605

    How Do Energy Price, Density, and Gini Changes Explain Biodiversity Outcomes The Empirical Case of the United StatesDownload

  • Is Economic Connectedness Likely to Raise the Environmental Footprint?

    Abstract

    Economic connectedness has been recently found to lower income inequality by rising intergenerational mobility, yet its environmental impacts are less well known. More well-known is the fact that the non-carbon footprint is easier to reach via regulations because its production is domestic. These two problems of income inequality and environmental pollution have echoed in public opinion polls as one of the major current problems in developed countries. We thereby look at the United States on the state level during the last two decades (2010–2020) with a Hausman–Taylor estimator for panel data. The choice of the estimator stems from its appropriateness for panel datasets with constant variables. We find that in the United States, economic connectedness between friends, whereby friendships were formed within the same group, may be blamed for the rising environmental (non-carbon) footprint. The non-carbon footprint is, therefore, explained by the bonding of social capital, which may restrict innovation. We document the case where social capital in the form of economic connectedness may be harmful to the public good, such as the environment, our main contribution. The negative effect of bonding social capital on environmental outcomes due to rigid social networks and particular network technology use is a novel addition to the prior research. The policy implications are discussed in more detail, and a call is made to distinguish social capital types and promote bridging social capital where bonding social capital is relatively strong.

    Keywords

    non-carbon footprint; economic connectedness; environment; social capital; Hausman–Taylor estimator

    Citation

    Auza, A., & Fuinhas, J. A. (2025). Is Economic Connectedness Likely to Raise the Environmental Footprint? Biosphere, 1(1), 7. https://doi.org/10.3390/biosphere1010007

    Is Economic Connectedness Likely to Raise the Environmental Footprint?
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  • No social capital without biodiversity

    Abstract

    One of the determinants of a more equal income distribution in society is social capital, measured by economic connectedness. This instance can be augmented by improving biodiversity as a necessary condition for the outcome. We find this by employing necessary condition analysis. On the other hand, qualitative comparative analysis results in a lack of sufficiency of biodiversity for the outcome or non-outcome of economic connectedness.

    Keywords

    biodiversity; social capital; sustainable development; United States; necessary condition analysis

    Citation

    Auza, A., & Fuinhas, J. A. (2025). No social capital without biodiversity. Applied Economics Letters, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504851.2025.2489780

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    CeBER 2025| University of Coimbra | Biodiversity and economic connectedness
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    BIOECON 2025 | University of Cambridge | No Social Capital without Biodiversity
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