Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/178998 
Year of Publication: 
2018
Series/Report no.: 
DIW Discussion Papers No. 1737
Publisher: 
Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW), Berlin
Abstract: 
To internalize pollution externalities into household waste generation, Unit Pricing Systems (UPS) have been adopted worldwide. This paper evaluates the causal effects of a UPS on the disposal of municipal solid waste in Trento, Italy. To account for policy endogeneity due to unobservables, we employ the synthetic control method on a unique panel of monthly waste generation. Our results show that the policy was effective, with a significant decrease of the priced waste stream,unsorted waste, by 37.5%. This effect seems to be largely driven by behavioral changes towards waste avoidance (-8,6%) and a minor increase in recycling (+6,1%).
Subjects: 
Waste generation
Unit pricing
Synthetic controls
JEL: 
D01
C21
Q53
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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