IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i4p1664-d324149.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does China’s Municipal Solid Waste Source Separation Program Work? Evidence from the Spatial-Two-Stage-Least Squares Models

Author

Listed:
  • Liange Zhao

    (School of Economics, Zhejiang Gongshang University, 18 Xuezheng Road, Hangzhou 310018, China)

  • Jianfeng Zou

    (School of Economics, Zhejiang Gongshang University, 18 Xuezheng Road, Hangzhou 310018, China
    Zhejiang Gongshang University Hangzhou College of Commerce, 66 Huancheng South Road, Hangzhou 311500, China)

  • Zhijian Zhang

    (School of Economics, Zhejiang Gongshang University, 18 Xuezheng Road, Hangzhou 310018, China)

Abstract

This paper evaluates the impact of the second municipal solid waste (MSW) source separation program on municipal solid waste generation (MSWG) in China. Without considering the spatial interactions between cities, the second MSW source separation program has a nonsignificant adverse effect on the per capita municipal solid waste generation (PMSWG). Relaxing the stable-unit-treatment-value assumption (SUTVA), which holds in most of the previous estimation literature on treatment effects, involving the spatial spillover effect among cities, as well as correcting the endogenous local policy has a significantly negative but not robust impact on the PMSWG. The estimation results of the generalized nesting spatial regression models (GNS) imply that the spatial interaction characteristics among Chinese prefecture-level cities may, if neglected, lead to underestimation of the reduction effects of the second MSW source separation policy on the absolute amount of PMSWG. More importantly, our study indicates that although not all the spatial econometric models support the significant reduction effect of source separation on the absolute amount of PMSWG, the source separation program significantly reduces the relative amount of PMSWG, and this result is robust in all spatial models.

Suggested Citation

  • Liange Zhao & Jianfeng Zou & Zhijian Zhang, 2020. "Does China’s Municipal Solid Waste Source Separation Program Work? Evidence from the Spatial-Two-Stage-Least Squares Models," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-20, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:4:p:1664-:d:324149
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/4/1664/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/4/1664/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sanjeev Sobhee, 2004. "The environmental Kuznets curve (EKC): a logistic curve?," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(7), pages 449-452.
    2. anonymous, 1995. "Does the bouncing ball lead to economic growth?," Regional Update, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, issue Jul, pages 1-2,4-6.
    3. Charles M. Tiebout, 1956. "A Pure Theory of Local Expenditures," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64(5), pages 416-416.
    4. Don Fullerton & Wenbo Wu, 2002. "Policies for Green Design," Chapters, in: Don Fullerton & Thomas C. Kinnaman (ed.), The Economics of Household Garbage and Recycling Behavior, chapter 5, pages 102-119, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Massimiliano Agovino & Alessandro Crociata & Pier Sacco, 2016. "Location matters for pro-environmental behavior: a spatial Markov Chains approach to proximity effects in differentiated waste collection," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 56(1), pages 295-315, January.
    6. Robin R. Jenkins, 1993. "The Economics Of Solid Waste Reduction," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 248.
    7. Thomas C. Kinnaman & Don Fullerton, 2002. "Garbage and Recycling with Endogenous Local Policy," Chapters, in: Don Fullerton & Thomas C. Kinnaman (ed.), The Economics of Household Garbage and Recycling Behavior, chapter 6, pages 120-143, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    8. Lee, Lung-fei & Yu, Jihai, 2010. "Estimation of spatial autoregressive panel data models with fixed effects," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 154(2), pages 165-185, February.
    9. Don Fullerton & Thomas C. Kinnaman, 2002. "Household Responses to Pricing Garbage by the Bag," Chapters, in: Don Fullerton & Thomas C. Kinnaman (ed.), The Economics of Household Garbage and Recycling Behavior, chapter 4, pages 88-101, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. Train,Kenneth E., 2009. "Discrete Choice Methods with Simulation," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521766555, September.
    11. Cole, M.A. & Rayner, A.J. & Bates, J.M., 1997. "The environmental Kuznets curve: an empirical analysis," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(4), pages 401-416, November.
    12. Giovanni Cerulli, 2022. "Econometric Evaluation of Socio-Economic Programs," Advanced Studies in Theoretical and Applied Econometrics, Springer, edition 2, number 978-3-662-65945-8.
    13. Meredith Fowlie & Stephen P. Holland & Erin T. Mansur, 2012. "What Do Emissions Markets Deliver and to Whom? Evidence from Southern California's NOx Trading Program," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(2), pages 965-993, April.
    14. Raouf Boucekkine & Fouad Ouardighi, 2016. "Optimal Growth with Polluting Waste and Recycling," Dynamic Modeling and Econometrics in Economics and Finance, in: Herbert Dawid & Karl F. Doerner & Gustav Feichtinger & Peter M. Kort & Andrea Seidl (ed.), Dynamic Perspectives on Managerial Decision Making, pages 109-126, Springer.
    15. Hongyun Han & Zhijian Zhang & Sheng Xia, 2016. "The Crowding-Out Effects of Garbage Fees and Voluntary Source Separation Programs on Waste Reduction: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(7), pages 1-17, July.
    16. Besley, Timothy & Case, Anne, 2000. "Unnatural Experiments? Estimating the Incidence of Endogenous Policies," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 110(467), pages 672-694, November.
    17. R Fenton & N Hanley, 1995. "Economic Instruments and Waste Minimization: The Need for Discard-Relevant and Purchase-Relevant Instruments," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 27(8), pages 1317-1328, August.
    18. Luc Anselin, 2001. "Spatial Effects in Econometric Practice in Environmental and Resource Economics," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 83(3), pages 705-710.
    19. Gene M. Grossman & Alan B. Krueger, 1995. "Economic Growth and the Environment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(2), pages 353-377.
    20. Austin Nichols, 2007. "Causal inference with observational data," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 7(4), pages 507-541, December.
    21. Pingo Wang & Alok Bohara & Robert Berrens & Kishore Gawande, 1998. "A risk-based environmental Kuznets curve for US hazardous waste sites," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(12), pages 761-763.
    22. F. Moscone & E. Tosetti & G. Vittadini, 2012. "Social interaction in patients’ hospital choice: evidence from Italy," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 175(2), pages 453-472, April.
    23. Hongyun Han & Zhijian Zhang & Sheng Xia & Hanning Li, 2018. "The carrot or the stick: individual adaption against varying institutional arrangements," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 61(4), pages 568-596, March.
    24. Palmer, Karen & Walls, Margaret, 1997. "Optimal policies for solid waste disposal Taxes, subsidies, and standards," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 193-205, August.
    25. Nick Johnstone & Julien Labonne, 2004. "Generation of Household Solid Waste in OECD Countries: An Empirical Analysis Using Macroeconomic Data," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 80(4).
    26. Panayotou T., 1993. "Empirical tests and policy analysis of environmental degradation at different stages of economic development," ILO Working Papers 992927783402676, International Labour Organization.
    27. Beede, David N & Bloom, David E, 1995. "The Economics of Municipal Solid Waste," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 10(2), pages 113-150, August.
    28. W. Kip Viscusi & Joel Huber & Jason Bell, 2011. "Promoting Recycling: Private Values, Social Norms, and Economic Incentives," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(3), pages 65-70, May.
    29. Olle Hage & Krister Sandberg & Patrik Söderholm & Christer Berglund, 2018. "The regional heterogeneity of household recycling: a spatial-econometric analysis of Swedish plastic packing waste," Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences, Springer, vol. 11(3), pages 245-267, October.
    30. Federico Revelli, 2005. "On Spatial Public Finance Empirics," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 12(4), pages 475-492, August.
    31. Hao, Yu & Liu, Yiming & Weng, Jia-Hsi & Gao, Yixuan, 2016. "Does the Environmental Kuznets Curve for coal consumption in China exist? New evidence from spatial econometric analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 1214-1223.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xuemeng Zhang & Chao Liu & Yuexi Chen & Guanghong Zheng & Yinguang Chen, 2022. "Source separation, transportation, pretreatment, and valorization of municipal solid waste: a critical review," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(10), pages 11471-11513, October.
    2. Yihan Zhao & Rong Chen & Mitsuyasu Yabe & Buxin Han & Pingping Liu, 2021. "I Am Better Than Others: Waste Management Policies and Self-Enhancement Bias," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-19, November.
    3. Can Zou & Jun Tai & Li Chen & Yue Che, 2020. "An Environmental Justice Assessment of the Waste Treatment Facilities in Shanghai: Incorporating Counterfactual Decomposition into the Hedonic Price Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-12, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Thomas C. Kinnaman & Don Fullerton, 2002. "The Economics of Residential Solid Waste Management," Chapters, in: Don Fullerton & Thomas C. Kinnaman (ed.), The Economics of Household Garbage and Recycling Behavior, chapter 1, pages 1-48, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Brian Chi-ang Lin & Siqi Zheng & Ankinée Kirakozian, 2016. "One Without The Other? Behavioural And Incentive Policies For Household Waste Management," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(3), pages 526-551, July.
    3. Palmer, Karen L. & Walls, Margaret, 1999. "Extended Product Responsibility: An Economic Assessment of Alternative Policies," Discussion Papers 10830, Resources for the Future.
    4. Don Fullerton & Andrew Leicester & Stephen Smith, 2008. "Environmental Taxes," NBER Working Papers 14197, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Francisco J. André & Emilio Cerdá, 2005. "Gestión de residuos sólidos urbanos: Análisis económico y políticas públicas," Economic Working Papers at Centro de Estudios Andaluces E2005/23, Centro de Estudios Andaluces.
    6. Maarten A. Allers & Corine Hoeben, 2010. "Effects of Unit-Based Garbage Pricing: A Differences-in-Differences Approach," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 45(3), pages 405-428, March.
    7. Carmen van der Merwe & Martin de Wit, 2021. "An In-Depth Investigation into the Relationship Between Municipal Solid Waste Generation and Economic Growth in the City of Cape Town," Working Papers 07/2021, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics, revised 2021.
    8. Mazzanti, Massimiliano & Montini, Anna & Zoboli, Roberto, 2006. "Municipal Waste Production, Economic Drivers, and 'New' Waste Policies: EKC Evidence from Italian Regional and Provincial Panel Data," Climate Change Modelling and Policy Working Papers 12053, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    9. Leonzio Rizzo & Riccardo Secomandi, 2020. "Pay as you throw: evidence on the incentive to recycle," Working papers 88, Società Italiana di Economia Pubblica.
    10. Letisha S. Fong & Alberto Salvo & David Taylor, 2020. "Evidence of the environmental Kuznets curve for atmospheric pollutant emissions in Southeast Asia and implications for sustainable development: A spatial econometric approach," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(5), pages 1441-1456, September.
    11. Ferrara, Ida & Missios, Paul, 2011. "A Cross-Country Study of Household Waste Prevention and Recycling: Assessing the Effective of Policy Instruments," MPRA Paper 70811, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Hongyun Han & Zhijian Zhang & Sheng Xia, 2016. "The Crowding-Out Effects of Garbage Fees and Voluntary Source Separation Programs on Waste Reduction: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(7), pages 1-17, July.
    13. Sidique, Shaufique F. & Joshi, Satish V. & Lupi, Frank, 2010. "Factors influencing the rate of recycling: An analysis of Minnesota counties," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 54(4), pages 242-249.
    14. Halkos, George E. & Tsionas, Efthymios G., 2001. "Environmental Kuznets curves: Bayesian evidence from switching regime models," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 191-210, March.
    15. Carattini, Stefano & Baranzini, Andrea & Lalive, Rafael, 2018. "Is Taxing Waste a Waste of Time? Evidence from a Supreme Court Decision," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 131-151.
    16. Walls, Margaret, 2011. "Deposit-Refund Systems in Practice and Theory," RFF Working Paper Series dp-11-47, Resources for the Future.
    17. Sigrid Stagl, 1999. "Delinking Economic Growth from Environmental Degradation? A Literature Survey on the Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis," Working Papers geewp06, Vienna University of Economics and Business Research Group: Growth and Employment in Europe: Sustainability and Competitiveness.
    18. Yen-Lien Kuo & Charles Perrings, 2010. "Wasting Time? Recycling Incentives in Urban Taiwan and Japan," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 47(3), pages 423-437, November.
    19. Paul Missios & Ida Ferrara, 2011. "A Cross-Country Study of Waste Prevention and Recycling," Working Papers 028, Toronto Metropolitan University, Department of Economics.
    20. van den Bergh, Jeroen C.J.M., 2008. "Environmental regulation of households: An empirical review of economic and psychological factors," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(4), pages 559-574, July.

    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:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:4:p:1664-:d:324149. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.