TY - JOUR
T1 - The effects of hazardous waste taxes on waste generation and disposal
AU - Sigman, Hilary
N1 - Funding Information:
1I thank James Poterba and Paul Joskow for their guidance and Trudy Ann Cameron, Howard Chang, Eric Engen, Don Fullerton, Kathleen McGarry, and three anonymous referees for helpful comments. I am grateful to the M.I.T. Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research for financial support.
PY - 1996
Y1 - 1996
N2 - In 1990, 31 states levied taxes on the generation or management of hazardous waste. These taxes are one of the broadest applications of emissions taxes in U.S. environmental policy. This paper examines the impacts of the state taxes on chlorinated solvent waste from metal cleaning, using plant-level data from EPA's 1987-1990 Toxic Release Inventories. The results suggest that the amount of solvent waste generated may respond elastically to changes in incineration costs. The overall impact of state hazardous waste taxes currently in place in the United States is estimated to be small, however, because the taxes constitute a small fraction of total waste management costs. The results also suggest that the taxes successfully encourage generators to choose treatment over land disposal as their waste management method.
AB - In 1990, 31 states levied taxes on the generation or management of hazardous waste. These taxes are one of the broadest applications of emissions taxes in U.S. environmental policy. This paper examines the impacts of the state taxes on chlorinated solvent waste from metal cleaning, using plant-level data from EPA's 1987-1990 Toxic Release Inventories. The results suggest that the amount of solvent waste generated may respond elastically to changes in incineration costs. The overall impact of state hazardous waste taxes currently in place in the United States is estimated to be small, however, because the taxes constitute a small fraction of total waste management costs. The results also suggest that the taxes successfully encourage generators to choose treatment over land disposal as their waste management method.
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U2 - 10.1006/jeem.1996.0014
DO - 10.1006/jeem.1996.0014
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0030066332
VL - 30
SP - 199
EP - 217
JO - Journal of Environmental Economics and Management
JF - Journal of Environmental Economics and Management
SN - 0095-0696
IS - 2
M1 - 0014
ER -