IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/125150.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

When Green Turns Costly: The Fiscal Fallout of EU Waste Management Funds in Italian Municipalities

Author

Listed:
  • Baraldi, Anna Laura
  • Cantabene, Claudia
  • de Iudicibus, Alessandro
  • Fosco, Giovanni
  • iacopo, Grassi

Abstract

This paper investigates the fiscal consequences of EU-funded waste management projects on local taxation in Italian municipalities. Using a difference-in-differences approach on panel data from 2007 to 2023, we find that municipalities receiving EU cohesion funds experienced a significant increase in per-capita waste taxes, driven by rising service costs. A decomposition of these costs reveals that while separate waste collection expanded — in line with sustainability goals — the associated logistical and operational expenses increased sharply. Conversely, although the vol- ume of unsorted waste declined, disposal costs rose, likely due to lower quality and more complex treatment requirements. To assess whether cost increases reflected inefficiency or technological progress, we estimate total factor productivity changes via a non-parametric Malmquist index. The results indicate substantial productivity gains in sorted waste management, mostly from technological advancement, but also suggest transitional inefficiencies. Our findings highlight the need for more integrated investment strategies to balance environmental goals with fiscal sustainability.

Suggested Citation

  • Baraldi, Anna Laura & Cantabene, Claudia & de Iudicibus, Alessandro & Fosco, Giovanni & iacopo, Grassi, 2025. "When Green Turns Costly: The Fiscal Fallout of EU Waste Management Funds in Italian Municipalities," MPRA Paper 125150, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:125150
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/125150/1/MPRA_paper_125150.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    U Cohesion Policy; Waste Management; Local Public Finance; En- vironmental Taxation; Service Costs; Efficiency and Productivity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • H72 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Budget and Expenditures
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy
    • R53 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Public Facility Location Analysis; Public Investment and Capital Stock

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:125150. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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 RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.