{"title":"市政合并是否降低了废物管理成本?来自日本的证据","authors":"Jinsong Li , Kenji Takeuchi","doi":"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2023.103939","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This study investigates whether municipal mergers result in lower waste management costs. We develop a novel virtual merging method based on machine learning techniques to compile the data of the control group and estimate the effect of the large-scale consolidation in Japan on the various costs of managing municipal solid waste. We find that these mergers actually led to an increase in the total cost per ton. Estimation results also reveal that the construction cost increased in the post-merger period, which can be explained by the special bonds provided by the national government for new projects in merged municipalities. By contrast, the processing and management cost is little affected by the mergers, except for the absorption-type mergers and municipalities that never joined waste management associations. These results suggest that municipal mergers might not always bring a substantial scale economy in municipal solid waste management. Policymakers should be careful when promoting municipal mergers in the belief that a scale economy will prevail after the reform.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48196,"journal":{"name":"Regional Science and Urban Economics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.5000,"publicationDate":"2023-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"Do municipal mergers reduce the cost of waste management? Evidence from Japan\",\"authors\":\"Jinsong Li , Kenji Takeuchi\",\"doi\":\"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2023.103939\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"<div><p>This study investigates whether municipal mergers result in lower waste management costs. We develop a novel virtual merging method based on machine learning techniques to compile the data of the control group and estimate the effect of the large-scale consolidation in Japan on the various costs of managing municipal solid waste. We find that these mergers actually led to an increase in the total cost per ton. Estimation results also reveal that the construction cost increased in the post-merger period, which can be explained by the special bonds provided by the national government for new projects in merged municipalities. By contrast, the processing and management cost is little affected by the mergers, except for the absorption-type mergers and municipalities that never joined waste management associations. These results suggest that municipal mergers might not always bring a substantial scale economy in municipal solid waste management. Policymakers should be careful when promoting municipal mergers in the belief that a scale economy will prevail after the reform.</p></div>\",\"PeriodicalId\":48196,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"Regional Science and Urban Economics\",\"volume\":null,\"pages\":null},\"PeriodicalIF\":3.5000,\"publicationDate\":\"2023-08-26\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"0\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"Regional Science and Urban Economics\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"96\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166046223000741\",\"RegionNum\":2,\"RegionCategory\":\"经济学\",\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"Q1\",\"JCRName\":\"ECONOMICS\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Regional Science and Urban Economics","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166046223000741","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
Do municipal mergers reduce the cost of waste management? Evidence from Japan
This study investigates whether municipal mergers result in lower waste management costs. We develop a novel virtual merging method based on machine learning techniques to compile the data of the control group and estimate the effect of the large-scale consolidation in Japan on the various costs of managing municipal solid waste. We find that these mergers actually led to an increase in the total cost per ton. Estimation results also reveal that the construction cost increased in the post-merger period, which can be explained by the special bonds provided by the national government for new projects in merged municipalities. By contrast, the processing and management cost is little affected by the mergers, except for the absorption-type mergers and municipalities that never joined waste management associations. These results suggest that municipal mergers might not always bring a substantial scale economy in municipal solid waste management. Policymakers should be careful when promoting municipal mergers in the belief that a scale economy will prevail after the reform.
期刊介绍:
Regional Science and Urban Economics facilitates and encourages high-quality scholarship on important issues in regional and urban economics. It publishes significant contributions that are theoretical or empirical, positive or normative. It solicits original papers with a spatial dimension that can be of interest to economists. Empirical papers studying causal mechanisms are expected to propose a convincing identification strategy.