What happens after the rare earth crisis: A systematic literature review

Abstract

Rare earths (REs) play an important role in modern life, and have been the focus of global attention in recent years. As a result, the number of scientific publications has grown enormously, increasing the need for understanding the knowledge base of various research streams and their emerging branches. The economic analysis of REs has also augmented steadily. Nevertheless, the relevant literature is rather fragmented concerning the thematic topics. To respond to this, a systematic review in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) and a bibliometric analysis were developed to offer a systematic and holistic literature review of the economic research on REs. This review incorporates studies of REs regarding aspects of supply, price, export policy, international trade, relationship with clean energy, and sustainability. The database of this review includes a set of 85 systemically selected state-of-the-art articles from five databases, including Web of Science, Science Direct, Springer, Proquest, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) that were published after the rare earth crisis, covering empirical and theory research conducted in different countries with different resource endowments. The results show that the majority of the economic research studies have been conducted in the past six years. Furthermore, among the six categories, the most popular research trend is sustainability. Some possible opportunities for future research are also illustrated in this paper.