Document Detail


Assessing the effectiveness of voluntary solid waste reduction policies: methodology and a Flemish case study.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  17904835     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the use of statistical techniques to evaluate the effectiveness of voluntary policy instruments for waste management. The voluntary character of these instruments implies that latent characteristics, unobserved by the analyst, might influence the subscription decision and might lead to biased estimates of the effectiveness of the policy instrument if standard techniques are used. We propose an extension of the difference-in-differences (DiD) estimator to evaluate the effectiveness of voluntary policy instruments, which is termed the dynamic difference-in-differences (or DDD) estimator. We illustrate the technique by estimating the effectiveness of voluntary cooperation agreements between the Flemish environmental administration and individual municipalities aimed at curbing residential solid waste. Using a dataset covering all 308 Flemish municipalities for the period 2000-2005, our results indicate that municipalities subscribing to the agreement accomplished less reduction of their waste levels compared to what could be expected on the basis of their own performance prior to subscription and the performance of the non-subscribers. This result might be explained by the rising marginal cost of extra residential solid waste reduction policies. In addition, there are indications that subscribing municipalities refrain from additional reduction efforts once the target waste level of the program is achieved. The more complicated DDD methodology is shown to generate additional insight over the ordinary DiD analysis.
Authors:
Simon De Jaeger; Johan Eyckmans
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Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't     Date:  2007-09-29
Journal Detail:
Title:  Waste management (New York, N.Y.)     Volume:  28     ISSN:  0956-053X     ISO Abbreviation:  Waste Manag     Publication Date:  2008  
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2008-06-02     Completed Date:  2008-11-13     Revised Date:  -    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  9884362     Medline TA:  Waste Manag     Country:  United States    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  1449-60     Citation Subset:  IM    
Affiliation:
EHSAL - European University College Brussels, Stormstraat 2, Belgium. simon.dejaeger@ehsal.be
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MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Algorithms
Belgium
Cities
Conservation of Natural Resources / economics*
Cost Control
Environment
Environmental Pollution / prevention & control
Government Regulation
Models, Statistical
Public Policy
Refuse Disposal / economics*
Regression Analysis
Reproducibility of Results
Waste Management / methods*

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


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