Bueno, Matheus and Valente, Marica
(2019)
The effects of pricing waste generation: A synthetic control approach.
Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, vol. 96.
pp. 274-285.
Abstract
To internalize pollution externalities into household waste generation, Unit Pricing Systems (UPS) have been adopted worldwide. This paper evaluates the causal effects of a UPS on the disposal of municipal solid waste in Trento, Italy. Using a unique panel dataset of monthly waste generation in Italian municipalities, we employ the synthetic control method, which allows us to account for possible time-varying effects of unobservables. Our results show that the policy was effective, with a significant decrease of the priced waste stream, unsorted waste, by 37.5%. This effect seems to be largely driven by behavioral changes towards waste avoidance (−8.6%) and possibly by a smaller increase in recycling (+6.1%). By comparing these results to those obtained by a difference-in-differences approach, we show that failing to account for time-varying effects of unobservables may lead to a mismeasurement of policy effects.
Item Type: | Article |
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Language: | English |
Date: | July 2019 |
Refereed: | Yes |
Subjects: | B- ECONOMIE ET FINANCE |
Divisions: | TSE-R (Toulouse) |
Site: | UT1 |
Date Deposited: | 22 Jan 2020 14:48 |
Last Modified: | 18 Apr 2024 11:33 |
OAI Identifier: | oai:tse-fr.eu:123948 |
URI: | https://publications.ut-capitole.fr/id/eprint/33844 |