Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2012

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

PhD

College

Chambers College of Business and Economics

Department

Economics

Committee Chair

Randall W. Jackson.

Abstract

In the late 1960s and 1970s, amid changing attitudes about the environment and emerging sustainability concerns, countries around the world began regulating multiple aspects of hazardous waste. Initial regulations, and those occurring since, all share the broader goals of curbing hazardous waste generation and regulating hazardous waste trade, but with few signs of progress. Using input-output analysis and spatial interaction modeling, this dissertation analyzes various dimensions of the hazardous waste problem in the United States and the United Kingdom. The overall objective is to develop methods to answer the following questions: 1) who is generating hazardous waste; 2) why is hazardous waste being generated; and 3) where is hazardous waste going? New methods for analyzing the generation of hazardous waste, identifying the parties that are ultimately accountable for this generation, and exploring the relationships that exist within the market for hazardous waste trade are provided and successfully demonstrated. In the United States, only a few sectors of the economy are accountable for most of the direct industrial hazardous waste generation. Hazardous waste multipliers provide additional information with respect to direct, indirect, and total accountability of the different industrial generators. The results from an attribution analysis show that household consumption drives a large portion of industrial hazardous waste generation but that foreign exports are accountable for the most hazardous waste generated per million dollars of expenditure. The analysis of hazardous waste trade within the United Kingdom suggests that characteristics related to health, educational attainment, and the presence of a hazardous waste landfill are all associated with hazardous waste flows. Significant region-specific effects for both origins and destinations are also identified.

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