This chapter provides empirical evidence on the relationship between economic drivers (income and socio-economic and policy factors) and municipal waste generation by analysing two sets of panel data for Italy: 20 regions for the period 1996-2004 and 103 provinces for the period 1999-2005. The results provide evidence in favour of an EKC for waste, with rather high TPs, but within the observed income range, at least for most specifications. This evidence emerges mainly from province-level data. The TP is estimated to be in the range €22,586-31,611 of value added per capita. Baseline specifications show a TP at €36,518, while specifications that include socio-economic drivers and policy factors have a TP around €23,000-26,000. These values are higher than the median and mean values for value added in the period considered, and quite close to the maximum value added observed across Italian provinces. Only a few of the 103 Italian provinces either exceed or come close to this threshold. All other drivers, such as population density, separated waste collection, tourist flows and policy factors, are statistically significant, with the expected signs. Policy factors, particularly the transition from the tax to the tariff system, highlight the possible effectiveness of full cost pricing. However, only the richest provinces in Northern Italy tend to be more innovative in terms of new institutional/policy approaches (market-oriented management, market-based instruments, better enforcement of waste policies), but they produce more waste per capita. Although the innovative approaches to waste policy adopted by the richer Italian provinces are aimed mainly at recovering waste management costs, and rather less at reducing waste generation at source, they could have a favourable impact on local waste generation performance. The two policy variables do not affect the core waste Kuznets curve evidence.

Municipal waste generation, socio-economic drivers and waste management instruments

MAZZANTI, Massimiliano;
2009

Abstract

This chapter provides empirical evidence on the relationship between economic drivers (income and socio-economic and policy factors) and municipal waste generation by analysing two sets of panel data for Italy: 20 regions for the period 1996-2004 and 103 provinces for the period 1999-2005. The results provide evidence in favour of an EKC for waste, with rather high TPs, but within the observed income range, at least for most specifications. This evidence emerges mainly from province-level data. The TP is estimated to be in the range €22,586-31,611 of value added per capita. Baseline specifications show a TP at €36,518, while specifications that include socio-economic drivers and policy factors have a TP around €23,000-26,000. These values are higher than the median and mean values for value added in the period considered, and quite close to the maximum value added observed across Italian provinces. Only a few of the 103 Italian provinces either exceed or come close to this threshold. All other drivers, such as population density, separated waste collection, tourist flows and policy factors, are statistically significant, with the expected signs. Policy factors, particularly the transition from the tax to the tariff system, highlight the possible effectiveness of full cost pricing. However, only the richest provinces in Northern Italy tend to be more innovative in terms of new institutional/policy approaches (market-oriented management, market-based instruments, better enforcement of waste policies), but they produce more waste per capita. Although the innovative approaches to waste policy adopted by the richer Italian provinces are aimed mainly at recovering waste management costs, and rather less at reducing waste generation at source, they could have a favourable impact on local waste generation performance. The two policy variables do not affect the core waste Kuznets curve evidence.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11392/1377717
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