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The Organization of Local Solid Waste and Recycling Markets: Public and Private Provision of Services

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Author Info
Macauley, Molly () (Resources for the Future)
Walls, Margaret () (Resources for the Future)
Anderson, Soren
Abstract

We study determinants of market organization of local public services by an empiricalexamination of one of the most visible municipal services, residential waste management. Usinga multinomial logit model and data for 1,000 U.S. communities, we explore the effect of politicalinfluence, voter ideology, environmental constraints, production costs (i.e., “economies ofdensity”), and contracting transaction costs on a community’s choice of market arrangement forwaste collection and recycling. We find that cost factors are a significant determinant of servicedelivery method. In contrast, few of the political variables are statistically significant. Theseresults hold for our models of both waste and recycling, lending further evidence to theconclusion that local governments emphasize costs when choosing between private and publicprovision.

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Paper provided by Resources For the Future in its series Discussion Papers with number dp-02-35-rev.

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Date of creation: 01 May 2002
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Related research
Keywords: Market organization; solid waste management; state and local government;

Find related papers by JEL classification:
Q20 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - General
H70 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - General

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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  2. Boycko, Maxim & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1996. "A Theory of Privatisation," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 106(435), pages 309-19, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. Edwards, Franklin R & Stevens, Barbara J, 1978. "The Provision of Municipal Sanitation Services by Private Firms: An Empirical Analysis of the Efficiency of Alternative Market Structures and Regulatory Arrangements," Journal of Industrial Economics, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 27(2), pages 133-47, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  7. Becker, Gary S, 1983. "A Theory of Competition among Pressure Groups for Political Influence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 98(3), pages 371-400, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Hart, Oliver & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1997. "The Proper Scope of Government: Theory and an Application to Prisons," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 112(4), pages 1127-61, November.
    Other versions:
  9. Dubin, Jeffrey A & Navarro, Peter, 1988. "How Markets for Impure Public Goods Organize: The Case of Household Refuse Collection," Journal of Law, Economics and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 4(2), pages 217-41, Fall.
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  12. Williamson, Oliver E, 1999. "Public and Private Bureaucracies: A Transaction Cost Economics Perspective," Journal of Law, Economics and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 15(1), pages 306-42, April.
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  1. Walls, Margaret & Calcott, Paul, 2002. "Waste, Recycling, and "Design for Environment": Roles for Markets and Policy Instruments," Discussion Papers dp-00-30-rev, Resources For the Future. [Downloadable!]
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