Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hohpublica.uni-hohenheim.de/handle/123456789/24

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Browsing Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre by Sustainable Development Goals "11"

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    Leveraging regionally sourced natural fibers for coreless filament winding in sustainable construction
    (2026) Rossa, Alina J.; Bozó, Daniel Christopher; Mindermann, Pascal; Gresser, Götz T.; Schuenemann, Franziska
    This study investigates the potential of regionally sourced natural fibers (NF) as sustainable feedstocks for coreless filament winding (CFW), an innovative and resource-efficient composite fabrication method for construction. As the sector moves towards bio-based materials, flax has emerged as a benchmark due to its compatibility with CFW and favorable mechanical properties. However, supply chain vulnerabilities and price volatility highlight the need for regional alternatives to flax fibers. By assessing hemp, miscanthus, lavender, nettle and wheat straw cultivated in Baden-Württemberg (BW), this paper links crop sustainability and fiber suitability with the broader aim of strengthening local biomass utilization within the bioeconomy. A multi-stage evaluation framework compares environmental, economic, social, and technical indicators against flax, focusing on biomass availability, input intensity, ecosystem services, land-use competition, and fiber properties. The results identify hemp as the most promising alternative due to its high fiber output, low cultivation inputs, beneficial ecosystem services and mechanical performance. Nettle offers strong mechanical performance but faces agronomic limitations, while lavender presents niche potential under integrated production systems. Miscanthus and wheat straw, while unsuitable for direct CFW due to fiber morphology, may serve as supplementary feedstocks through modified processing. These findings underscore the role of local biomass streams in creating robust regional value chains, contributing to the resilience and sustainability of the bioeconomy. While the focus of this study is on BW, the framework can be transferred to other regions and may serve as a practical tool for policy, industry, and research seeking to advance circular approaches in bio-based construction.
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    Metropolitan, urban, and rural regions: how regional differences affect elementary school students in Germany
    (2025) Schwerter, Jakob; Bleher, Johannes; Doebler, Philipp; McElvany, Nele
    This study examined how regional differences affect elementary school students using the representative German Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2016 data (N = 3,959 fourth-grade students; M_{Age} = 10.34 years; 49% girls; 71% from a nonimmigrant background) by combining bootstrapping, multiple imputations, principal component analysis, and the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO). Grouping regions into rural, (sub-)urban, and metropolitan, we found that students from rural and metropolitan areas are 10.9% and 15.1% more likely, respectively, to receive an academic track recommendation than their urban counterparts. Similarly, rural and metropolitan students are 0.2 to 0.3 standard deviations more likely to enjoy school and be interested in reading than their urban counterparts. Aside from students’ backgrounds and skills, many of the characteristics explaining this regional difference are structural, directly affected by policy decisions. Variables directly and indirectly influenced by policy help explain regional differences, but nonpolicy variables reduce regional differences in academic track recommendations the most.