Italian waste in the circular economy: A agenda for industry regulators in Italy

Antonio Massarutto ()

ECONOMIA PUBBLICA, 2019, vol. 2019/1, issue 1, 9-48

Abstract: The advent of the circular economy paradigm has definitively changed the economic nature of municipal waste management and calling for an innovative approach for its economic regulation. This paper discusses how the general framework of the theory of economic regulation of services of general economic interest can fit the MWM industry. We show that this industry exhibits specificities that require an adaptation of regulatory principles, but nonetheless cross-fertilization from the regulatory practice of other utilities is feasible. However, the recognition made shows that the applied economic research on this sector is still in its infant phase, and substantial improvements are needed in order both to understand its mechanisms from a theoretical viewpoint and to provide empirical evidence. Different from other utilities, physical network assets are less dominant and competition opportunities are larger; however, the main constraint to widespread opening of the market descends from contingent reasons determining de-facto market power, and from the superior value of service reliability and contrast to illegal operation.

JEL-codes: Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista. ... 854&Tipo=ArticoloPDF (text/html)
Single articles can be downloaded buying download credits, for info: https://www.francoangeli.it/DownloadCredit

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fan:epepep:v:html10.3280/ep2019-001002

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.francoang ... io.aspx?IDRivista=16

Access Statistics for this article

ECONOMIA PUBBLICA is currently edited by FrancoAngeli

More articles in ECONOMIA PUBBLICA from FrancoAngeli Editore
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Stefania Rosato ().