Economic analysis of recyclable papers

• Main Author: Njelita, Charles O
• Format: Others
• Published: DigitalCommons@Robert W. Woodruff Library, Atlanta University Center 1996
• Online Access: http://digitalcommons.auctr.edu/dissertations/3828; http://digitalcommons.auctr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5351&context=dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to trace the effect of the real price of wastepaper on the quantity of wastepaper recycled, under the framework of secondary material market. A linear demand model of a national market for wastepaper was derived from the industry's production function, and a linear supply function was also derived from past wastes and flows of current waste streams. An equilibrium price that determines the quantity of wastepaper recycled was obtained and illustrated. Two-stage least squares (2SLS) was used to obtain the values of structural parameters in the over-identified equations. The coefficient of the wastepaper price proved to be inelastic. As hypothesized, the real price of wastepaper has no effect on the quantity recycled. The result supported the argument of the past studies in questioning the effectiveness of current recycling policy of using price as an instrumental variable to adjust the recycling rate.