Illegal trafficking and unsustainable waste management in Italy: evidence at the regional level

The presence of organized crime strongly affects sustainable waste management in Italy. In particular, illegal traf cking of waste has become one of the fastest growing areas of crime and one of the most lucrative industries among organized criminal activities, which has now in ltrated both the Italian urban and hazardous waste management cycle. In this study, we aim to investigate the determinants of the illegal traf cking of waste using waste, economic, and enforcement data in a panel analysis over the period 2002-2013. The topic is particularly relevant, given the high heterogeneity across Italian regions which also relates, and eventually leads, to different environmental performances. Our main ndings reveal that, in most Italian regions, enforcement activities do not exert a signi cant deterrence on criminal behaviors; a negative relationship between enforcement and illegal traf cking of waste can be identi ed only for very high levels of enforcement efforts. Moreover, we nd that the major determinants in uencing the rate of illegal traf cking of waste differ between northern-central and southern regions, con rming the existence of a regional dualism. In particular, while in the northern-central area the crime rate is positively related to the level of education and negatively to the adoption of environmentally sound policies, in southern regions the organized activities for illegal traf cking are negatively related to the degree of education attainment and positively to the endowment of waste management plants.