Drivers of municipal waste generation in Nordic countries: panel evidence
7 affiliations
- 1CGFSS, HEAT ATF SP 13446, International Islamic University Chittagong, Chattogram, 4318, Bangladesh
- 2Department of Economics, Noakhali Science and Technology University, Noakhali, 3814, Bangladesh
- 3Center for Comparative and International Studies, ETH Zurich, Switzerland, Zürich, 8092, Switzerland
- 4School of Economics and Management, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China; Chitkara Business School, Chitkara University, Rajpura, Punjab, 140417, India; Center for Sustainable Development and Green Innovation Research, Bahçeşehir Cyprus University, Nicosia, TRNC, Mersin, 10, Turkey
- 5Department of Finance and Tourism, Termez University of Economics and Service, Termez, Uzbekistan; Department of Finance, Tashkent State University of Economics, Tashkent, Uzbekistan; Department of Economics, Bukhara State University, Bukhara, Uzbekistan; Research Fellows, University of Tashkent for Applied Science, Str. Gavhar 1, Tashkent, 100149, Uzbekistan
- 6Department of Geography and Resource Management, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China; Institute of Environment, Energy and Sustainability, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
- 7Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, 60286, Indonesia; Center of Indonesian Socioeconomic Studies, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, 60268, Indonesia; School of Economics and Business Science, Universidad Panamericana, Aguascalientes, Mexico; Corresponding author at: Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, 60286, Indonesia.
Abstract
Municipal waste generation remains a persistent sustainability challenge, even in countries with strong environmental governance and circular economy ambitions. Yet it remains unclear how affluence, household final consumption expenditure as a share of GDP, digitalization, innovation, urbanization, and recycling relate to waste generation in advanced economies. This study examines associations between per capita municipal waste generation and GDP per capita, household final consumption expenditure as a share of GDP, digital infrastructure, patent applications, urbanization, and recycling rates across five Nordic countries—Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden—over 2000–2024. The analysis combines tests for cross-sectional dependence, slope heterogeneity, unit roots, and cointegration with a fixed-effects model estimated using Driscoll–Kraay standard errors as the main specification, alongside PCSE, FGLS, and leave-one-country-out robustness checks. The Dumitrescu–Hurlin procedure is also used to assess directional predictability. The results show that associations involving GDP per capita, patent applications, and urbanization are sensitive to model specification, year controls, and sample composition. In simpler pooled models and specifications without year effects, GDP per capita and urbanization are often positively associated with municipal waste generation, but these relationships weaken once common time effects are absorbed. Patent applications are positive in some regressions, but their sign and significance are unstable across estimators. Household consumption, digital infrastructure, and recycling do not show consistently stable associations. Overall, the findings are best interpreted as panel associations in levels rather than definitive long-run relationships.
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BibTeX
@article{ridwan2026drivers,
title = {{Drivers of municipal waste generation in Nordic countries: panel evidence}},
author = {Mohammad Ridwan and Zulfiquar Ali Antor and Jeremy Ko and Mohammad Haseeb and Khurshid Khudoykulov and Harry F. Lee and Miguel Angel Esquivias},
journal = {Waste Management Bulletin},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1016/j.wmb.2026.100394},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wmb.2026.100394},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Drivers of municipal waste generation in Nordic countries: panel evidence
AU - Mohammad Ridwan
AU - Zulfiquar Ali Antor
AU - Jeremy Ko
AU - Mohammad Haseeb
AU - Khurshid Khudoykulov
AU - Harry F. Lee
AU - Miguel Angel Esquivias
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/30
JO - Waste Management Bulletin
DO - 10.1016/j.wmb.2026.100394
UR - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wmb.2026.100394
AB - Municipal waste generation remains a persistent sustainability challenge, even in countries with strong environmental governance and circular economy ambitions. Yet it remains unclear how affluence, household final consumption expenditure as a share of GDP, digitalization, innovation, urbanization, and recycling relate to waste generation in advanced economies. This study examines associations between per capita municipal waste generation and GDP per capita, household final consumption expenditure as a share of GDP, digital infrastructure, patent applications, urbanization, and recycling rates across five Nordic countries—Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden—over 2000–2024. The analysis combines tests for cross-sectional dependence, slope heterogeneity, unit roots, and cointegration with a fixed-effects model estimated using Driscoll–Kraay standard errors as the main specification, alongside PCSE, FGLS, and leave-one-country-out robustness checks. The Dumitrescu–Hurlin procedure is also used to assess directional predictability. The results show that associations involving GDP per capita, patent applications, and urbanization are sensitive to model specification, year controls, and sample composition. In simpler pooled models and specifications without year effects, GDP per capita and urbanization are often positively associated with municipal waste generation, but these relationships weaken once common time effects are absorbed. Patent applications are positive in some regressions, but their sign and significance are unstable across estimators. Household consumption, digital infrastructure, and recycling do not show consistently stable associations. Overall, the findings are best interpreted as panel associations in levels rather than definitive long-run relationships.
SN - 2949-7507
ER -