Institute for Economic and Environmental Policy                                                                                                       Member of network of academics

Economic and Environmental Effects of Environmental Regulation under Different Market Structures (e.g. packaging waste regulation)

Which market structure (monopoly or competition) is more efficient for the fulfillment of packaging waste goals?

The expected drop in landfill capacities (or capacities for the waste disposal at all) lead to the enactment of Packaging Directive which came into force on December 1994. The members of European Union are forced to attain very strict targets of packaging waste recovery and recycling. The producer’s responsibility as a legal duty (the packaging collection and recovery) can be fulfilled through the involvement in collective system (in majority EU countries Green dot system) organized by one or more authorized recovery organizations. The research is based on the current discussion on European level about environmental efficiency and effectiveness of this regulation in monopoly market structure or in competition, which is held by some interest groups (e.g. European Commission, PRO Europe etc.). The lack of the economic approach in this discussion is noticeable -the effect of market competition approach in waste management (and environment at all) is explored marginally and impact of market competition between recovery organizations is not yet analyzed.

Funding Agency: Czech Science Foundation
Duration: 1/2010–12/2011
Contact Person: Jan Slavík, e-mail: slavik@ieep.cz
Researchers: Jan Slavík, Jitka Šeflová, Martin Ždímal, Josef Šíma
Outputs: Slavík J., Pavel J. (2013): Do the variable charges really increase the effectiveness and economy of waste management? A case study of the Czech Republic. Resources Conservation and Recycling 70: 68–77.
Downloads: Publisher webpage: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921344912001747