Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T10:10:59.119Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Determinants of trade in recyclable wastes: evidence from commodity-based trade of waste and scrap

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 November 2013

Keisaku Higashida  and
Shunsuke Managi
Keisaku Higashida
Affiliation:
School of Economics, Kwansei Gakuin University, 1-155, Ichiban-cho, Uegahara, Nishinomiya, Hyogo 662-8501, Japan. Tel/Fax: +81-798-54-4653. E-mail: [email protected]
Shunsuke Managi
Affiliation:
Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper examines factors that affect the trade of recyclable waste in both exporting and importing countries. To this end, we employ two important elements: first, we adopt a gravity model in our empirical methodology; second, we select five waste and scrap commodities and undertake estimations using commodity-level trade data. We demonstrate that, the higher the wage/per capita GDP/population of an importing country, the more recyclable wastes it imports. This result suggests that the demand for final goods and, accordingly, the demand for materials including recycled material, have strong effects on the import volume of recyclable waste. Moreover, this implies that the imports of a developing country from developed countries increase with expanding industrial activity and economic growth. We find no evidence for a pollution haven for wastes and recycling.

Type
Research Article
Information
Environment and Development Economics , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , April 2014 , pp. 250 - 270
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, J.S. (1979), ‘A theoretical foundation for the gravity equation’, American Economic Review 69: 106–115.Google Scholar
Anderson, J.S. and van Wincoop, E. (2003), ‘Gravity with gravities: a solution to the border puzzle’, American Economic Review 93: 170–192.Google Scholar
Baggs, J. (2009), ‘International trade in hazardous waste’, Review of International Economics 17: 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baldwin, R. and Taglioni, D. (2006), ‘Gravity for dummies and dummies for gravity equations. National Bureau of Economic Research’, Working Paper No. 12516, NBER, Cambridge, MA.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berglund, C. and Söderholm, P. (2003a), ‘Complementing empirical evidence on global recycling and trade of waste paper’, World Development 31: 743–754.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berglund, C. and Söderholm, P. (2003b), ‘An econometric analysis of global waste paper recovery and utilization’, Environmental and Resource Economics 26: 429–456.Google Scholar
Bergstrand, J.H. (1985), ‘The gravity equation in international trade: some microeconomic foundations and empirical evidence’, Review of Economics and Statistics 67: 474–481.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bergstrand, J.H. (1989), ‘The generalized gravity equation, monopolistic competition, and the factor proportions theory in international trade’, Review of Economics and Statistics 71: 143–153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bergstrand, J.H. (1990), ‘The Heckscher–Ohlin–Samuelson model, the Linder hypothesis, and the determinants of bilateral intra-industry trade’, Economic Journal 100: 1216–1229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chaney, T. (2008), ‘Distorted gravity: the intensive and extensive margins of international trade’, American Economic Review 98: 1707–1721.Google Scholar
Cho, G., Sheldon, I.M., and McCorriston, S. (2002), ‘Exchange rate uncertainty and agricultural trade’, American Journal of Agricultural Economics 84: 931–942.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conrad, K. (1999), ‘Resource and waste taxation in the theory of the firm with recycling activities’, Environmental and Resource Economics 14: 217–242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Copeland, B.R. (1991), ‘International trade in waste products in the presence of illegal disposal’, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 20: 143–162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
D'Amato, A., Managi, S., and Mazzanti, M. (2012), ‘Economics of waste management and disposal: decoupling, policy enforcement and spatial factors’, Environmental Economics and Policy Studies 14: 323–325.Google Scholar
Dinan, T.M. (1993), ‘Economic efficiency effects of alternative policies for recycling waste disposal’, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 25: 242–256.Google Scholar
Eichner, T. (2005), ‘Imperfect competition in the recycling industry’, Metroeconomica 56: 1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eichner, T. and Pethig, R. (2001), Product design and efficient management of recycling and waste treatment, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 41: 109–134.Google Scholar
Eichner, T. and Pethig, R. (2003), ‘Corrective taxation for curbing pollution and promoting green product design and recycling’, Environmental and Resource Economics 25: 477–500.Google Scholar
Grace, R., Turner, R.K., and Walter, I. (1978), ‘Secondary materials and international trade’, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 5: 172–186.Google Scholar
Helpman, E., Melitz, M., and Rubinstein, Y. (2008), ‘Estimating trade flows: trading partners and trading volumes’, Quarterly Journal of Economics 123(2): 441–487.Google Scholar
Highfill, J. and McAsey, M. (1997), ‘Municipal waste management: recycling and landfill space constraints’, Journal of Urban Economics 41: 118–136.Google Scholar
Hotta, Y., Mori, H., and Tanaka, M. (2008), ‘Policy considerations for establishing an environmentally sound regional material flow in East Asia’, Journal of Environment and Development 17: 26–50.Google Scholar
Huhtala, A. (1999), ‘Optimizing production technology choices: conventional production vs. recycling’, Resource and Energy Economics 21: 1–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huhtala, A. and Samakovlis, E. (2002), ‘Does international harmonization of environmental policy instruments make economic sense?’, Environmental and Resource Economics 21: 261–286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ichinose, D., Higashida, K., Shinkuma, T., and Kojima, M. (2013), ‘Should the trade of hazardous waste be uniformly regulated? An empirical analysis of export demand for “waste and scrap”’, Environment and Development Economics, forthcoming.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kellenberg, D. (2010), ‘Consumer waste, backhauling, and pollution havens’, Journal of Applied Economics 13: 283–304.Google Scholar
Kellenberg, D. (2012), ‘Trading wastes’, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 64: 68–87.Google Scholar
Mazzanti, M. and Zoboli, R. (2009), ‘Municipal waste Kuznets curves: evidence on socio-economic drivers and policy effectiveness from the EU’, Environmental and Resource Economics 44: 203–220.Google Scholar
OECD (2008), OECD Environmental Outlook to 2030, Paris: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.Google Scholar
Ray, A. (2008), ‘Waste management in developing Asia: can trade and cooperation help?’, Journal of Environment and Development 17: 3–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shinkuma, T. and Managi, S. (2011), Waste and Recycling: Theory and Empirics, New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silva, J.M.C.S. and Tenreyro, S. (2006), ‘The log of gravity’, Review of Economics and Statistics 88: 641–658.Google Scholar
Tenreyro, S. (2007), ‘On the trade impact of nominal exchange rate volatility’, Journal of Development Economics 82: 485–508.Google Scholar
Van Beukering, P.J.H. (2002), Recycling, International Trade and the Environment: An Empirical Analysis, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.Google Scholar
Van Beukering, P.J.H. and Bouman, M.N. (2001), ‘Empirical evidence on recycling and trade of paper and lead in developed and developing countries’, World Development 29: 1717–1737.CrossRefGoogle Scholar