Effectiveness and efficiency of European Regional Development Fund on separate waste collection: evidence from Italian regions by a stochastic frontier approach

Abstract The purpose of the present paper is to analyze the results of the impact of European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) in Convergence regions over the 2007–2013 on separate collection rate of Italian regions. The aim is twofold: propose a groundbreaking analysis that allows us to control both for the effectiveness of the Regulation (EC) No. 1080/2006, by a Difference in differences equation (DID), and the Regions' efficiency in the separate collection process, by a stochastic frontier analysis (SFA). Specifically, the SFA allows us to model the DID equation in order to take account the regions' efficiency in the separate collection process in terms of institutional quality. In particular, we use a panel with two dimensions: temporal—9 yearly observations from 2004 to 2012; and cross-sectional—20 regions. The estimates suggest that ERDF have not contributed to reducing the structural divide in Italy and its managerial slack has triggered in the failure of the convergence objective. Policy implications are discussed

Evaluating waste collection management: the case of macro‑areas and municipalities in Italy

The purpose of the present paper is to analyse the gap among Italian macro-areas performances in terms of separate waste collection rate and density of separate waste collection. The aim is twofold: (1) to investigate if clear and effective infrastructure policies, in Southern Italy, have been realized that are able to reduce the gap in the separate waste collection process with the rest of Italy and (2) to evaluate if Southern Italian municipalities have improved their operational capacity in the separate waste collection process. In particular, we exploit data collected in 2012 by several Italian sources (ISPRA and ISTAT). We implement a recentered influence function regression technique that allows us to put two macro-areas in comparison (North vs. South and Centre vs. South). This technique, once measured the territorial gaps, allows to disentangle the gap in the two spatial units of analysis (at municipalities level and at macro-areas level). The estimates suggest that while in the North the issue of waste is managed effectively and responsibly with respect to the Southern area, the latter has exhibited an advantage with respect to the Central Italy; furthermore, Southern municipalities appear to be unable to pursue a virtuous waste management system generating the persistence of a marked territorial gap in terms of both SCR and DSC. The main policy implications are discussed

Agriculture, climate change and sustainability: The case of EU-28

Agriculture and climate change are characterized by a complex cause-effect relationship. The agricultural sector generates significant quantities of gas emissions that affect climate. The rise in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the increase in temperatures as well as changes in the precipitation regime have repercussions on the volume, quality and stability of the agricultural and zoo technical production, but also on the natural environment in which agriculture is practiced. Based on the above, the purpose of the paper is twofold. Firstly, through the Wroclaw Taxonomic Method, we construct a composite indicator, called the Index of Sustainable Agriculture (ISA), and analyse 28 countries that have joined the European Union from 1 July 2013 to today (EU-28) over the period 2005–2014, according to 16 variables. Secondly, the Granger-causality test for panel data is implemented in order to verify the causal relationship among the ISA, climate change and agricultural production. In other words, we test which of the three analyzed variables turns out to be the cause variable and which, instead, turns out to be the effect variable. Furthermore, we test if there is a bidirectional causality among the variables. This analysis provides a wide overview on how European countries rank according to the ISA and its three crucial pillars, i.e. environmental, economic and social. Moreover, important causality relationships among the ISA, climate changes (approximated by mean annual temperature and mean annual precipitation and provided by the Climate Research Unit (CRU) Time-Series (TS) Version 3.22 of the University of East Anglia) and agricultural production (approximated by wheat and spelt yields and provided by EUROSTAT) are identified. In particular, the following hypotheses are verified: 1) there is a negative bidirectional relationship between climate change and agricultural yields; 2) there is a negative bidirectional causal relationship between climate change and sustainable agriculture; 3) conventional agriculture negatively affects sustainable agriculture