Jane Torbert (p), Melanie Krause

Ilona Bartuseviciene

At present, we are facing an economic sea change towards a more circular economy, with waste reduction and efficient management at its core. Reducing municipal waste is a challenge for urban policymakers around the world, but often it is unclear what the best strategies for effective waste management are. We analyze to what extent participating in the Zero Waste Europe (ZWE) initiative can act as a commitment device and to what extent waste is reduced compared to other cities without the same status. Zero waste concerns itself with the conservation of resources throughout the life cycle of a product - from raw material sourcing to production to disposal - as well as increased recycling and composting, conscious energy consumption, and efficient manufacturing. ZWE fosters the zero-waste transition by creating the legislative, financial, and cooperative groundwork necessary. There are currently 460+ European cities committed to becoming zero waste.

Exploiting novel Italian municipal-level waste data between 2010 and 2020 allows us to compare the trajectory of the 310 towns that joined the ZWE initiative at different points in time to a control group. We discuss the importance of socio-economic, geographical and institutional factors, as well as self-selection into the program. In a preliminary econometric analysis, we check for evidence of an environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) for municipal waste. The EKC hypothesis supposes environmental degradation and income per capita share an inverted U-shape relationship, suggesting that economic development initially deteriorates the environment and then redresses at some level of economic growth. We seek to find whether the hypothesis holds true for the specific issue of municipal waste.

Our dataset shows wide variation in municipal waste per capita levels across Italy. Summary statistics reported in Table 1 indicate more efficient waste management systems among treated cities in terms of separate collection and recycling. The preliminary analysis gives evidence of an EKC in municipal waste, with zero waste cities tending to be located near to or below the curve as seen in Figure 1. In subsequent analyses, we hope to explore this at a deeper level. Table 2 provides an overview of different specifications illustrating the inverted U-shaped relation between municipal waste and GDP. As we move forward with our inquiry, we will next conduct an econometric analysis to see if participation in ZWE causally lowers waste levels or whether there is self-selection in the way that already efficient cities join the initiative.

Khoirunurrofik Khoirunurrofik (p), Alfred Wu

Jane Torbert

Indonesia has pursued fiscal decentralization for over two decades, and massive changes can be seen in many areas. People migrated to urban areas to find opportunities and improve economic conditions. This is due to regional inequality, both from an economic and opportunity perspective, where economic activities are concentrated in large cities, particularly in Greater Jakarta. The phenomenon of urbanization is the accumulation of the effects of the push and pull factors of migration to cities and the formation of urban agglomerations. However, the relationship between fiscal decentralization policies and increasing urban agglomeration is still debated. Will fiscal decentralization make cities more attractive by providing better public services and infrastructure and being an attractive place to invest? Or rather, these fiscal decentralization policies have increased the fiscal capacity of regions, particularly non-urban areas, thereby encouraging urban outmigration. This study examines whether the decentralization policy that has been in place for over two decades has promoted economic concentration in Indonesia's major cities, thereby strengthening urban agglomeration or vice versa; The policy of decentralization has increased the economic distribution to other areas outside the city, a so-called sub-agglomeration phenomenon appeared. We will apply the panel dynamic regression model to estimate the impact of fiscal decentralization on urban agglomeration, with control variables related to geographical aspects, facilities, infrastructure, and economic structure. Since potential endogeneity issues often arise when considering the relationship between decentralization and agglomeration, the instrumental variable (IV) method is used to estimate the variables in the model. This study provides new evidence on the relationship between decentralization policy as a political factor and urbanization phenomena in large emerging economies. In addition, this study will assess the role of two important policies in Indonesia: fiscal decentralization and economic distribution.

Daniel Aparicio Perez (p), Maria Teresa Balaguer-Coll, Eduardo Jiménez-Fernández, Emili Tortosa-Ausina

Khoirunurrofik

Transparency is a vital aspect of good governance that ensures accountability, integrity,
and citizen participation. However, its measurement remains a challenge due
to the ambiguous nature of human language. Traditional approaches rely on binary
or categorical variables to measure transparency, which can lead to limited insights
and inaccurate policy decisions. To overcome this challenge, we develop a transparency
indicator based on fuzzy metrics. The transparency notion is contrary to the binary
principle of having a property or not having it, that is, to be transparent or not. In our
case, we apply a novel methodology designed for formative measurement and partially
compensatory models using a set of qualitative indicators. This tool provide a measure
of how close (observations close to 1) or far (observations close to 0) each observation is
from the analyzed concept. This is calculated for each indicator preserving the metric
structure. In this setting, this approach captures the complexity of transparency and
can better identify areas for improvement in local governments. In a second step, we
analyze the political, economic, and social determinants of this transparency index, relying
on spatial econometric techniques to account for spatial dependencies and ensure
the accuracy of our findings. In this work, we use a novel dataset that comprehensively
measures transparency at the municipal level in the Valencian region. As far
as we know, this is the first database that covers all municipalities in the region. By
capturing the complexity of transparency, our approach can better identify areas for
improvement and lead to more effective policy interventions. We argue that traditional
approaches that rely on binary or categorical variables may oversimplify the concept,
resulting in inadequate policy solutions that fail to address the real challenges faced by
local governments.

Ilona Bartuseviciene (p), Mindaugas Butkus

Daniel Aparicio Perez

The aim of this study. Antifragility concerns organizations' ability to face adversity and improve their positions by transforming the governance models in response to a crisis. It is characterized by the intrinsic competence to maintain and regain a dynamically stable state, enabling organizations to continue their activities after induced shocks or function effectively in an environment of continuing threats. Thus, instead of avoiding uncertainty and threats or trying to control them, creating ecosystems that aim to be antifragile to change is suggested. Once antifragility architecture is designed, organizations can easier achieve agility, which allows them to become even stronger when facing adversity. However, we still lack knowledge about the development of this phenomenon among organizations. Moreover, little is known about antifragility attributes in public sector organizations, which tend to be less fragile due to various constraints. Nonetheless, considering their public accountability, it becomes paramount for the public sector to learn how to transform the governance models in response to a crisis and even take advantage of it.
To better understand the antifragility construct and its potential in the public sector, a systematic literature review of the archetype of a protocol-driven approach is considered in this study. The scope of the review includes relevant publications that supplement these review questions, i.e.:
- How to conceptualize and measure antifragility?
- Whether manifestation of antifragility differ in the private and public sectors?
Methodology. Systematic literature review, i.e., PI(C)O scheme in PSALSAR framework.
Results (preliminary). Relevant publications were retrieved using two databases, i.e., Scopus and Web of Science, and relied on only one keyword, i.e., 'antifragil*'. As relevance is essential for retrieving publications, a wide range of publications has been considered for inclusion. Application of the inclusion/exclusion criteria led to 206 publications being considered. Considering the outcomes mentioned above, a thorough appraisal and systematization of the retrieved papers will be performed during the spring and summer of 2023, thus providing an opportunity to present the results during the 2023 ERSA Congress.
Originality. The forthcoming research will contribute to building an improved understanding of the current literature concerning antifragility phenomena and methodological approaches to evaluating it. In addition, this study will aim to reveal the differences in antifragility between the public and private sectors and point out a set of future research questions to be tackled.
This project has received funding from the Research Council of Lithuania (LMTLT), agreement No No S-PD-22-96.