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Determinants of trade in recyclable wastes: evidence from commodity-based trade of waste and scrap

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  • Higashida, Keisaku
  • Managi, Shunsuke

Abstract

This paper examines factors that affect the trade of recyclable waste in both exporting and importing countries. To this end, we employ two important elements: first, we adopt a gravity model in our empirical methodology; second, we select five waste and scrap commodities and undertake estimations using commodity-level trade data. We demonstrate that, the higher the wage/per capita GDP/population of an importing country, the more recyclable wastes it imports. This result suggests that the demand for final goods and, accordingly, the demand for materials including recycled material, have strong effects on the import volume of recyclable waste. Moreover, this implies that the imports of a developing country from developed countries increase with expanding industrial activity and economic growth. We find no evidence for a pollution haven for wastes and recycling.

Suggested Citation

  • Higashida, Keisaku & Managi, Shunsuke, 2014. "Determinants of trade in recyclable wastes: evidence from commodity-based trade of waste and scrap," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(2), pages 250-270, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:cup:endeec:v:19:y:2014:i:02:p:250-270_00
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. van Beukering, Pieter J. H. & Bouman, Mathijs N., 2001. "Empirical Evidence on Recycling and Trade of Paper and Lead in Developed and Developing Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(10), pages 1717-1737, October.
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    Cited by:

    1. Xu, Helian & Feng, Lianyue & Wu, Gang & Zhang, Qi, 2021. "Evolution of structural properties and its determinants of global waste paper trade network based on temporal exponential random graph models," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    2. Unfried, Kerstin & Wang, Feicheng, 2022. "Importing Air Pollution? Evidence from China's Plastic Waste Imports," IZA Discussion Papers 15218, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Compagnoni, Marco & Grazzi, Marco & Pieri, Fabio & Tomasi, Chiara, 2023. "Extended producer responsibility and trade flows in waste: The case of batteries," FEEM Working Papers 338789, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    4. Kurita, Kenichi & Managi, Shunsuke, 2021. "Circular economy in cities: An economic theory to decouple economic development from waste," MPRA Paper 105435, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Sawhney, Aparna & Majumder, Piyali, 2015. "Is India becoming a waste haven of metal scrap?," MPRA Paper 67186, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Jaime Vallés-Giménez & Anabel Zárate-Marco, 2021. "A Spatial Dynamic Model for Export Intensity of Hazardous Industrial Waste: The Incentive Effect of Regional Environmental Policies," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 80(4), pages 859-888, December.
    7. Rosanna Pittiglio & Filippo Reganati & Luca Toschi, 2017. "How to detect illegal waste shipments? The case of the international trade in polyethylene waste," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 37(4), pages 2625-2640.
    8. Jack Barrie & Patrick Schröder, 2022. "Circular Economy and International Trade: a Systematic Literature Review," Circular Economy and Sustainability,, Springer.
    9. Toshihiro Okubo & Yuta Watabe & Kaori Furuyama, 2016. "Export of Recyclable Materials: Evidence from Japan," Asian Economic Papers, MIT Press, vol. 15(1), pages 134-148, Winter/Sp.
    10. Chunsuttiwat,Pukitta & Coxhead,Ian, 2023. "Will you take my (s)crap? Waste havens in the global plastic waste trade," IDE Discussion Papers 895, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    11. Tobias Erhardt, 2019. "Garbage In and Garbage Out? On Waste Havens in Switzerland," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 73(1), pages 251-282, May.
    12. Bowen Li & Yifei Mu, 2024. "Impact of China’s National Sword Policy on Waste Import Margins: A Difference-in-Differences Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-20, January.
    13. Bowen Li & Antonio Alleyne & Zhaoyong Zhang & Yifei Mu, 2021. "Sustainability and Waste Imports in China: Pollution Haven or Resources Hunting," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-21, January.
    14. George E. Halkos & Kyriaki D. Tsilika, 2018. "A New Vision of Classical Multi-regional Input–Output Models," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 51(3), pages 571-594, March.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F18 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Environment
    • Q28 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Government Policy

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