The increasing scarcity of land and the ever-rising amount of waste produced worldwide, coupled with the consequent change of focus by policy makers from waste disposal and recovery to waste prevention is boosting research in the 'economics of waste'.
This volume addresses waste-management and waste-disposal issues, embedding them in spatial, systemic and trade-related frameworks. The collection is policy oriented, including socio-economic and political science perspectives in order to provide an understanding of real world phenomena, and thus maximize its value for policy making.
The book includes contributions on the linkages between income and waste generation and landfilling (such as the 'waste Kuznets curve' conceptual framework), in addition to papers that bring together policy-oriented analysis of instrument effectiveness and the spatial nature of waste phenomena. On top of this, there are pieces of research emphasizing technological spillovers and trade at interregional and intercountry levels. The comparative analysis of policy effectiveness and efficiency at the regional and country levels is also covered, including the assessment of the potential role of illegal management of waste in determining waste performance. To give a spatial and comparative flavour, the book includes work on the evaluation of waste-related externalities, with examples covering household, industrial and special waste.
The wide set of methodologies and issues included in this book make it a comprehensive starting point for scholars and policy makers interested in waste-related research.
Increasing scarcity of land and the consequential strengthening of policy targets pertaining to waste disposal, recovery and generation, has generated a need for empirical analyses that will aid policy effectiveness, while taking into account the relevance of specific regional features and the impact of a comprehensive set of socio-economic drivers.
New strands of microeconomic and macroeconomic analyses inspired by the Environmental Kuznets curve literature have emerged during the past years, enlarging the previously heavy managerial focus to bring in wider economic considerations, and complementing the historically stronger literature on the valuation of waste related externalities.
The book aims to provide guidelines for policymakers in gathering contributions of both a theoretical and empirical nature that cover and address waste management and disposal issues, embedding them in spatial, systemic and trade related frameworks.
