Authority vs. incentives: examining the effects of policy tools on municipal solid waste policy performance in South Korea

The research seeks to compare the effects of authority and incentive tools, in the environmental policy field. To compare their effects, this research analyzes South Korea’s municipal solid waste (MSW) recycling policy, which incorporates both tools. Specifically, the policy uses one authority tool (government monitoring for illegal dumping) and two incentive tools (monetary reward for reporting illegal dumping and community recycling challenge). We conducted panel-corrected standard error regression and seemingly unrelated regression analyses by using time-series cross-sectional data of the MSW and volume-based waste fee systems of 25 local governments from 2006 to 2019. The results demonstrate that the authority tool effectively achieves the policy goal. Incentive tools showed mixed results as monetary reward significantly increased MSW policy performance, whereas community recycling challenge policy alone was not significantly associated with all dependent variables. When both incentive tools were adopted, MSW policy performance was improved.