Advanced Search
MyIDEAS: Login

Landfill Diversion in a Decentralized Setting: a Dynamic Assessment of Landfill Taxes

Contents:

Author Info

  • Massimiliano Mazzanti

    ()

  • Francesco Nicolli

    ()

Abstract

We analyse the process of landfill diversion and separated collection, two pillars of a waste related performance in a country, by embedding the dynamics in a frame where economic, geographical and policy variables enter the arena. We aim at investigating in depth what main drivers may be responsible for such a phenomenon. In addition to structural and economic drivers we primarily investigate the role of landfill taxes. Notwithstanding the Italian landfill tax dates back to 1996, there is a lack of effectiveness assessment, which primarily derives from the absence of a full coherent dataset covering all regions. In fact, the implementation is delegated to each region, a case study of real decentralisation, and the opposite for example of the UK situation, where the tax is set and administered by the Treasury. We first provide a descriptive analysis of the regional trends over the years on the basis of an original landfill tax dataset covering all Italy that we constructed through a scrutiny of regional bills, and web and telephone contacts. We exploit this peculiar and original aggregation of tax related information to test whether the tax has been effective in supporting landfill diversion. We test the hypothesis on the basis of an integrated dataset that merges economic, waste, policy variables together, at regional level and over the period 1999-2008. We check for results sensitivity the effect of the landfill regional tax by using provincial dataset over the same period. Panel regressions show that the effect of tax is significant, complementary to structural factors, population density and related opportunity cost among others. Spatial effects seem instead negligible. This is the first evidence on a large panel dataset that introducing and increasing landfill taxes over time is an effective way to cope with waste disposal. Regions that have increased such taxes over time have achieved better waste disposal performances. Landfill taxes are not the only instrument but they show to a relevant ‘must have’ in the policy package.

Download Info

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
File URL: http://out.economia.unife.it/uploads/dip_deit/quaderni/201205.pdf
Download Restriction: no

Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by University of Ferrara, Department of Economics in its series Working Papers with number 201205.

as in new window
Length: 17 pages
Date of creation: 10 Apr 2012
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:udf:wpaper:201205

Contact details of provider:
Postal: Via Voltapaletto, 11 - I-44121 Ferrara (Italy)
Phone: +39 0532 455006
Fax: +39 0532 205349
Web page: http://dipem.economia.unife.it/
More information through EDIRC

Related research

Keywords: Landfill Taxes; Landfill Diversion; Recycling; Decentralized Policy; Regional Performance;

Find related papers by JEL classification:

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References

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.:
as in new window
  1. Alessio D'Amato & Massimiliano Mazzanti & Francesco Nicolli, 2011. "Waste Sustainability, Environmental Management and Mafia: Analysing Geographical and Economic Dimensions," CEIS Research Paper 213, Tor Vergata University, CEIS, revised 24 Oct 2011.
  2. William Easterly & Jozef Ritzen & Michael Woolcock, 2006. "Social Cohesion, Institutions, And Growth," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(2), pages 103-120, 07.
  3. Massimiliano Mazzanti & Anna Montini & Francesco Nicolli, 2011. "Embedding landfill diversion in economic, geographical and policy settings," Applied Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 43(24), pages 3299-3311.
  4. Stern, David I., 2004. "The Rise and Fall of the Environmental Kuznets Curve," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(8), pages 1419-1439, August.
  5. Mody, Ashoka & Roy, Subhendu & Wheeler, David & Dasgupta, Susmita, 1995. "Environmental regulation and development : a cross-country empirical analysis," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1448, The World Bank.
  6. Keefer, Philip & Knack, Stephen, 2000. "Polarization, politics, and property rights : links between inequality and growth," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2418, The World Bank.
  7. Massimiliano Mazzanti & Roberto Zoboli, 2008. "Waste Generation, Incineration and Landfill Diversion. De-coupling Trends, Socio-Economic Drivers and Policy Effectiveness in the EU," Working Papers 2008.94, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
  8. Adrian Martin & Ian Scott, 2003. "The Effectiveness of the UK Landfill Tax," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 46(5), pages 673-689.
Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

Citations

Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
as in new window

Cited by:
  1. Massimiliano Mazzanti & Susanna Mancinelli & Francesco Nicolli & Dario Biolcati Rinaldi, 2012. "Multi-Tasking in the Waste Realm. Theoretical and Empirical Insights on Management and Disposal Performances," Working Papers 2012051, University of Ferrara, Department of Economics.

Lists

This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

Statistics

Access and download statistics

Corrections

When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:udf:wpaper:201205

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Alberto Benati).

If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.

If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.