Regulatory Failure via Market Evolution: The Case of UK Packaging Recycling

Richard O'Doherty, Ian Bailey and Alan Collins
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Richard O'Doherty: School of Economics, University of the West of England, Bristol BS16 1QY, England
Ian Bailey: School of Geography and Geology, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, Devon PL4 8AA, England

Environment and Planning C, 2003, vol. 21, issue 4, 579-595

Abstract: The introduction of new market-based instruments (MBIs), such as eco-taxes and tradable permits, has prompted major changes in the implementation of environmental policy in the European Union. However, rather than wholeheartedly embracing the logic of environmental economics, governments have preferred to introduce MBIs alongside more traditional command-and-control measures, ostensibly to guarantee that policy objectives are met. Where such regimes of governance have underperformed, this raises the question as to whether difficulties are caused principally by flawed theory or regulatory failure, namely errors in policy design that distort MBIs from intended changes in market behaviour. Analysis of a tradable-permit scheme in Packaging Recovery Notes introduced to implement the UK Packaging Regulations reveals that, in this case, the difficulties experienced with an MBI were, in fact, traceable to regulatory failure. Different types of regulatory failure are identified and discussed.

Date: 2003
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envirc:v:21:y:2003:i:4:p:579-595

DOI: 10.1068/c0036j

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