Accounting for nitrogen in Denmark—a structural decomposition analysis

This paper examines the environmental-economic cycle for nitrogen in Denmark based on nitrogen input and output from different economic sectors. An input-output model is employed together with a nitrogen mass balance to apportion total nitrogen loading by final demand and estimate export and import of nitrogen from foreign trade. The changes in agricultural and industrial nitrogen loading from the mid 1960s to the late 1980s are broken down into changes related to different technological and economic factors. The analysis reveals that technological change (intensified agricultural production) and economic growth (especially rising exports) are the key factors, structural shifts (changes in commodity mix in the household and production sectors) generally being of less importance. © 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.