Conference Agenda

Implemented in 2018, China’s National Sword Policy (NSP) imposed strict restrictions on waste imports, particularly for plastics and paper, creating a large and quasi-exogenous shock to European waste exports. Because EU recycling targets can be met through both domestic recycling and exports for recycling, the policy disrupted an important compliance channel. Using panel data on packaging recycling rates by material and country, we implement a Difference-in-Differences (DiD) strategy that exploits variation in exposure across materials. We find that recycling rates for paper and plastics declined significantly following the ban, indicating that export-based recycling played an important role in supporting European recycling performance prior to the policy change. To assess medium-run adaptation, we also examine technological responses using patent data on recycling-related innovations and a DiD approach using other green technologies as a control group. We find a significant increase in patenting activity related to plastics and packaging recycling in Europe. By analyzing both recycling outcomes and innovation activity, the paper provides evidence on the dependence of European recycling systems on foreign recycling capacity and on their ability to adapt following a major disruption to global waste trade.

We study a novel channel of policy-induced innovation operating through global environmental interdependence. In 2018, China abruptly banned most imports of foreign waste, disrupting global material flows and forcing exporting countries to internalize disposal constraints. Exploiting this policy as an exogenous shock and leveraging cross-country variation in pre-ban exposure, we examine how tightening disposal constraints affect plastics-related innovation in Europe. Using patent data for EU member states and Great Britain from 2009 to 2021, we develop a text-based approach to identify environmentally oriented plastics innovations that standard classifications poorly capture. We find that the shock reallocated inventive effort economy-wide toward plastics-related eco-innovations. Within that category, patenting activity shifted away from the adoption of foreign technologies and toward new domestic inventions, reflecting the increased need for locally adapted solutions, with stronger responses where waste pressures became more binding. This evidence highlights how constraints imposed abroad can reshape not only the level but also the origin and direction of domestic technological change, with implications for countries' positions in the global technology race.

In the debate on international waste trade, the focus on resource efficiency and recycling has gradually begun to accompany the focus on negative environmental externalities. In this context, we examine the impact of extended producer responsibility (EPR) on the export of waste batteries (WB). EPR is considered as a key policy for the “marketization of waste”. WB are a hazardous waste that also contain a high concentration of critical raw materials. As such, they are of strategic importance for the recovery of critical resources, while at the same time requiring proper environmental management. Therefore, it is crucial to understand where WB are treated and how this is affected by related policies. Our results, based on difference-in-difference models in a gravity framework, show a consistent increase in WB exports after EPR implementation compared to the trend for other wastes. This result is likely to be an indirect consequence of the ability of EPR to support growth in waste collection rates, more accurate tracking of transboundary waste flows, and specialization of national waste management systems. In particular, WB exports appear to be directed to countries with more advanced waste management systems, more stringent environmental regulations, and limited endowments of the mineral resources typically contained in batteries.

Climate policies do not operate in isolation but propagate through global production networks, affecting industries beyond national borders. This paper combines international input-output data with a granular instrumental variable approach to capture how foreign regulations transmit through upstream and downstream linkages. Distinguishing between market-based policies, non-market regulations, and technology support, the analysis shows that foreign climate policies can enhance domestic productivity, with effects shaped by industry characteristics and operating through technological adjustment along supply chains. The results underscore the importance of accounting for international spillovers when evaluating the economic impact of environmental regulation.