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About this book
The growing solid waste stream is a looming environmental problem as many communities in the United States ans Europe face a shortage of disposal capacity. This book addresses a major policy question regarding the solid waste crisis: should municipalities charge households user fees for solid waste services? In considering this question Professor Jenkins draws on a data set which relates the quantity of waste discard and the prices charged to households for waste services in nine US communities. The author also provides an analysis of the relationship between the quantity of waste that individuals discard and such socio-economic variables as household income, the age of individuals and the population density of the community. In addition, she develops a utility maximization model which suggests that the quantity of waste recycled has a positive relationship with the user fee for waste services. Finally, the author provides instructions for forecasting the quantity of waste produced by a particular community.
Contents
Part 1 Introduction: the problem with the market for solid waste services; the primary purpose of this book; existing research on the Household's Response to User Fees for SWS; factors that affect residential and commercial demand for SWS; characteristic of the data collected; a summary of the empirical results; an outline of this book. Part 2 A review of the literature: the impact of volume-based user fees; the impact of service-level-based user fees and service levels; the impact of income and other socioeconomic variables; population density. part 3 Models of the household and the firm: a model to explain the household's decisions regarding solid waste; a model to explain the firm's decisions regarding household waste. Part 4 The residential and commercial demand equations - some econometric issues: specifications of the empirical model; stacking and aggregating the data; method of estimation. Part 5 A description of the data and details of the empirical model: data related to waste quantities and prices of SWS; the funding of SWS in non-user fee communities; inconsistancies within the quantity data; data related to community characteristics and regional prices; details of the empirical model. Part 6 How waste quantities respond to a user fee for SWS: results of the GLS estimation. Part 7 Tests and respecifications of the empirical model: an annual version of the generalized least squares (GLS) model; a Hausman test for endogeneity of the user fee variables; a test for constant slope coefficients. Part 8 Forecasting waste quantities: forecasting the quantity of residential waste; estimating the welfare gain from a residential user fee; forecasting the quantity of commercial waste; forecasting the sum of residential and commercial waste.
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