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Trading wastes

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  • Kellenberg, Derek

Abstract

The international trade of waste products is large and has grown substantially in the past decade. While a sizeable literature has flourished around the notion of international pollution havens (the movement of goods production with polluting by-products to low environmental regulation countries), this paper is the first to explicitly test the hypothesis that differences in environmental regulation across countries can create international waste haven effects (the exporting of physical waste by-products, rather than goods production, to low environmental regulation countries). Using bilateral waste trade data and an index of environmental stringency for 92 countries, compelling evidence is found that waste imports increase for a country whose environmental regulations deteriorate vis-à-vis it's trading partner, implying that differences in environmental standards play an important role in international waste trade flows for some country pairs.

Suggested Citation

  • Kellenberg, Derek, 2012. "Trading wastes," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 68-87.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeeman:v:64:y:2012:i:1:p:68-87
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2012.02.003
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    2. Alessio D’Amato & Alberto Iozzi & Giovanni Trovato, 2012. "The trade of polyethylene waste: prices or policies?," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 14(4), pages 341-356, October.
    3. Court, Christa D. & Munday, Max & Roberts, Annette & Turner, Karen, 2015. "Can hazardous waste supply chain ‘hotspots’ be identified using an input–output framework?," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 241(1), pages 177-187.
    4. Daniel Ventosa-Santaulària & Carlos Vladimir Rodríguez-Caballero, 2013. "Polynomial Regressions and Nonsense Inference," Econometrics, MDPI, vol. 1(3), pages 1-13, November.
    5. Sawhney, Aparna & Majumder, Piyali, 2015. "Is India becoming a waste haven of metal scrap?," MPRA Paper 67186, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Núñez-Rocha, Thaís & Martínez-Zarzoso, Inmaculada, 2019. "Are international environmental policies effective? The case of the Rotterdam and the Stockholm Conventions," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 480-502.
    7. Derek Kellenberg & Arik Levinson, 2014. "Waste of Effort? International Environmental Agreements," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(1), pages 135-169.
    8. 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.
    9. Alessio D’Amato & Shunsuke Managi & Massimiliano Mazzanti, 2012. "Economics of waste management and disposal: decoupling, policy enforcement and spatial factors," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 14(4), pages 323-325, October.
    10. Shigetomi, Yosuke & Nansai, Keisuke & Kagawa, Shigemi & Kondo, Yasushi & Tohno, Susumu, 2017. "Economic and social determinants of global physical flows of critical metals," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 107-113.
    11. Satoshi Honma, 2019. "Optimal policies for international recycling between developed and developing countries," Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 143-153, August.
    12. M. Dubois & J. Eyckmans, 2015. "Efficient Waste Management Policies and Strategic Behavior with Open Borders," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 62(4), pages 907-923, December.
    13. Bernard, Sophie, 2015. "North–south trade in reusable goods: Green design meets illegal shipments of waste," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 22-35.
    14. Barnes, Ryan & Bosworth, Ryan, 2015. "LNG is linking regional natural gas markets: Evidence from the gravity model," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 11-17.

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