Publication details
Waste Management Incentive Programs and Municipal Finance
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2019 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | Incentive programs in waste management can significantly improve environmental performance of municipality in terms of waste reduction and higher waste separation. However, economic aspects of incentives are often overlooked, while playing crucial role in the municipality’s decision whether to adopt some form of incentives or remain with the usual waste management set-up. In this study we focus on the economic impact of incentive programs in municipal waste management. We examine differences in revenues and expenditures related to municipal waste management, including both main areas of residual municipal waste and separated municipal waste. We use data from a sample of over 600 municipalities from South Moravia Region in the Czech Republic in period 2010-2018, of which several municipalities introduced a so-called reversed PAYT incentive program. Our results suggest that economically there is not much difference between municipalities with and without incentive program, as aggregated revenues and expenditures are relatively comparable, with reversed PAYT being occasionally slightly more expensive. However, notable differences are in the source of revenues. Municipalities with incentive program tend to raise less revenues from traditional fees/charges collected from the people, while covering the resulting gap from other sources, such as rewards for separated waste. People in the municipality can thus pay lower fees while the municipality is typically performing better in the environmental terms. In the end it is up to the municipality, whether it is willing to exchange additional effort of the staff and possibly slightly higher costs for better environmental performance and higher welfare of the population. |
| Related projects: |