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Dr. Raymond H.J.M. Gradus
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

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0 Local Government
0 Privatization
0 circular economy
0 plastic waste
0 waste pricing

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Privatization
plastic waste
Local Government
circular economy
waste pricing

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Short Biography

Raymond Gradus is a Professor of Public Economics and Administration at the School of Business and Economics, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands. In addition, he is a fellow of the Tinbergen Institute, Netspar (Network for Studies on Pensions, Aging and Retirement) and a chairman of the Committees for Financial Supervision of Dutch Antilles. His research interests are public administration, local government, environmental policy, and social security. He has published more than 50 articles in peer reviewed international journals.

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Journal article
Published: 25 August 2021 in Sustainability
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The Netherlands is a frontrunner in the EU regarding the circular economy. On a national scale, there are higher targets than the EU for different packaging materials as plastics, glass, paper/cartons, and aluminium. For glass, the government advocates a recycling rate of more than 90%. In 2017, the rate realised was 86%. To reach this 4% higher goal, the Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate wants to improve the collection infrastructure by increasing the number of bottle banks, with 800 by 2021. However, in the literature, an effectiveness analysis is lacking. Based on empirical evidence with data from 2007–2019, we show that increasing the number of bottle banks is not effective. Implementing a unit-based pricing system as a priced bag or container for unsorted waste can be more effective in achieving this goal, although this can have serious drawbacks.

ACS Style

Elbert Dijkgraaf; Raymond Gradus. Are Bottle Banks Sufficiently Effective for Increasing Glass Recycling Rates? Sustainability 2021, 13, 9540 .

AMA Style

Elbert Dijkgraaf, Raymond Gradus. Are Bottle Banks Sufficiently Effective for Increasing Glass Recycling Rates? Sustainability. 2021; 13 (17):9540.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Elbert Dijkgraaf; Raymond Gradus. 2021. "Are Bottle Banks Sufficiently Effective for Increasing Glass Recycling Rates?" Sustainability 13, no. 17: 9540.

Research article
Published: 10 June 2021 in International Review of Administrative Sciences
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Since the turn of the century, a global trend of re-municipalization has emerged, with cities reversing earlier privatizations and returning infrastructure and public service delivery to the public sector. The reversal of privatization measures is not an entirely new phenomenon. In the US, for example, returning public services to in-house production has been a long-standing feature of ‘pragmatic public management’. However, many cases of re-municipalization that have occurred since the early 2000s represent a distinctive shift from earlier privatization policies. High-profile cases in cities including Paris and Hamburg have thrust re-municipalization into the limelight as they have followed public campaigns motivated by dissatisfaction with the results of privatization and a desire to restore public control of vital services, such as water and energy. Just as the reform of public services towards privatization spawned a vast body of scholarship, the current re-municipalization phenomenon is increasingly attracting the attention of scholars from a number of disciplinary perspectives. The articles contained in this symposium contribute to this emerging literature. They address some of the burning issues relating to re-municipalization, but they also point to issues yet to be resolved and shed light on a research agenda that is still taking shape.

ACS Style

Daniel Albalate; Germà Bel; Raymond Gradus; Eoin Reeves. Re-municipalization of local public services: incidence, causes and prospects. International Review of Administrative Sciences 2021, 1 .

AMA Style

Daniel Albalate, Germà Bel, Raymond Gradus, Eoin Reeves. Re-municipalization of local public services: incidence, causes and prospects. International Review of Administrative Sciences. 2021; ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Daniel Albalate; Germà Bel; Raymond Gradus; Eoin Reeves. 2021. "Re-municipalization of local public services: incidence, causes and prospects." International Review of Administrative Sciences , no. : 1.

Journal article
Published: 13 October 2020 in Sustainability
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In the Netherlands, plastic waste recycling is high on the policy agenda. Much effort is made to recycle, mostly by residents, who separate plastic waste at home. However, much of the separated waste is not recycled into new products. Substantial amounts are burned or even shipped to Asia. This leads to substantial plastic debris, as recent evidence has shown. Moreover, the cost-effectiveness of plastic recycling versus incineration is very low. Based on evidence from the north of the Netherlands, postcollection or mechanical separation can be a viable alternative as more useful plastics are separated and there are indications that different plastic streams are of higher polymeric purity. Furthermore, there is some circumstantial evidence that cost-effectiveness increases if postseparation is chosen. To avoid large streams of mixed plastics that are barely recyclable, it is important that further agreements with the packaging industry are made to phase out these mixed plastics and further increase the polymeric purity of different plastic waste streams.

ACS Style

Raymond Gradus. Postcollection Separation of Plastic Recycling and Design-for-Recycling as Solutions to Low Cost-Effectiveness and Plastic Debris. Sustainability 2020, 12, 8415 .

AMA Style

Raymond Gradus. Postcollection Separation of Plastic Recycling and Design-for-Recycling as Solutions to Low Cost-Effectiveness and Plastic Debris. Sustainability. 2020; 12 (20):8415.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Raymond Gradus. 2020. "Postcollection Separation of Plastic Recycling and Design-for-Recycling as Solutions to Low Cost-Effectiveness and Plastic Debris." Sustainability 12, no. 20: 8415.

Article
Published: 16 July 2020 in Environmental and Resource Economics
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The European Union advocates a plastic waste recycling rate of more than 55%. Even for the Netherlands, which has already invested heavily in recycling plastic waste of households, it will still be a challenge to meet this target. The preferred solution to fulfil this target in the Netherlands is implementing separate collection schemes at the curbside, although some municipalities invested in post-separation. We show, based on data for 2013–2014, that post-collection separation is an advisable alternative, with an increased separation of plastic waste compared with home separation. This is even slightly the case if home separation is combined with a unit-based pricing system for unsorted waste and with a frequent door-to-door collection of plastic waste. Moreover, there are indications that the cost effectiveness of recycling plastic waste increases if post separation is chosen. In addition, some claim that unit-based pricing of unsorted waste is important to create an awareness effect to buy less packaging material. However, based on the combination of post separation and unit-based pricing, we have no indication for such awareness effect as the price effect on the amount of plastic waste is insignificantly small.

ACS Style

Elbert Dijkgraaf; Raymond Gradus. Post-collection Separation of Plastic Waste: Better for the Environment and Lower Collection Costs? Environmental and Resource Economics 2020, 77, 1 -16.

AMA Style

Elbert Dijkgraaf, Raymond Gradus. Post-collection Separation of Plastic Waste: Better for the Environment and Lower Collection Costs? Environmental and Resource Economics. 2020; 77 (1):1-16.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Elbert Dijkgraaf; Raymond Gradus. 2020. "Post-collection Separation of Plastic Waste: Better for the Environment and Lower Collection Costs?" Environmental and Resource Economics 77, no. 1: 1-16.

Journal article
Published: 12 May 2020 in Government Information Quarterly
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Social media enables public sector organizations to connect with citizens. Next to this, it can help organizations provide more detailed and useful information. But to what extent is social media used by local governments for interaction purposes, and what factors influence this? In this article, we study how Dutch local governments use Twitter for interaction, linking this to political, institutional, and socio-economic determinants. We find that politically fragmented municipalities use Twitter more for interaction, suggesting that political multiplicity forms a stimulus for more online engagement. Moreover, municipalities that have a Twitter account for a longer time make more advanced use of its functions, implying that municipalities with longer experience are better acquainted with a platform's strengths and weaknesses. Finally, municipalities with a higher presence of people in the age group 20–65 as well as municipalities with more higher-educated people use their social media more for interaction. The same counts for municipalities with more ICT workers.

ACS Style

Bram Faber; Tjerk Budding; Raymond Gradus. Assessing social media use in Dutch municipalities: Political, institutional, and socio-economic determinants. Government Information Quarterly 2020, 37, 101484 .

AMA Style

Bram Faber, Tjerk Budding, Raymond Gradus. Assessing social media use in Dutch municipalities: Political, institutional, and socio-economic determinants. Government Information Quarterly. 2020; 37 (3):101484.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Bram Faber; Tjerk Budding; Raymond Gradus. 2020. "Assessing social media use in Dutch municipalities: Political, institutional, and socio-economic determinants." Government Information Quarterly 37, no. 3: 101484.

Preprint
Published: 30 December 2019 in SSRN Electronic Journal
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In recent years, social media has become a major venue for the interplay between citizens and public sector organizations, in order to facilitate corporate dialog. However, not much comprehensive research has been done on how interactivity between local governments and citizens takes shape. Building on earlier work that addresses municipal e-government adoption, this article does empirical work on the ways in which social media is used by all 380 Dutch municipalities. It focuses on social media usage by means of a quantitative assessment through five social media platforms: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram. In doing so, it sheds light on the interrelations between e-government adoption, social media deployment, and sophistication of use from a local government perspective. Furthermore we identify determinants for the types of social media usage by means of a stages of an e-government model consisting of three phases. We find that more densely populated municipalities with a larger and a higher-educated population use their Twitter account significantly different from their counterparts.

ACS Style

Bram Faber; Tjerk Budding; Raymond Gradus. Keeping in Touch With Citizens Online: Social Media Usage in Dutch Local Government. SSRN Electronic Journal 2019, 1 .

AMA Style

Bram Faber, Tjerk Budding, Raymond Gradus. Keeping in Touch With Citizens Online: Social Media Usage in Dutch Local Government. SSRN Electronic Journal. 2019; ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Bram Faber; Tjerk Budding; Raymond Gradus. 2019. "Keeping in Touch With Citizens Online: Social Media Usage in Dutch Local Government." SSRN Electronic Journal , no. : 1.

Introduction
Published: 21 November 2019 in Journal of Economic Policy Reform
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Re-municipalization is part of a broader set of reverse privatization reforms. We argue the term re-municipalization lacks conceptual clarity, confusing municipal level reversals from national ones, new service delivery from reversals, and mixed market positions from full public control. This conceptual confusion makes measurement of re-municipalization difficult. While more case studies are being discovered, quantitative time series studies do not show remunicipalization is increasing. Much case study based research argues remunicipalization is politically transformative, but quantitative research generally finds re-municipalization to be part of a pragmatic market management process, a position confirmed by the papers in this special issue.

ACS Style

Judith Clifton; Mildred E. Warner; Raymond Gradus; Germà Bel. Re-municipalization of public services: trend or hype? Journal of Economic Policy Reform 2019, 1 -12.

AMA Style

Judith Clifton, Mildred E. Warner, Raymond Gradus, Germà Bel. Re-municipalization of public services: trend or hype? Journal of Economic Policy Reform. 2019; ():1-12.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Judith Clifton; Mildred E. Warner; Raymond Gradus; Germà Bel. 2019. "Re-municipalization of public services: trend or hype?" Journal of Economic Policy Reform , no. : 1-12.

Articles
Published: 28 June 2019 in Journal of Economic Policy Reform
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Analyzing shifts in the delivery mode of 12 municipal services between 2010 and 2018, in about 41% of the observations, shifts took place, with 54% toward outside production and 46% toward inside production. In the physical domain, most shifts were to cooperation, whereas in the operational domain reverse privatization and also cooperatization are dominant trends. Based on logit models, for services with high asset specificity, we find a lower likelihood of change, whereas for services with high measurement difficulty, we find a higher likelihood of change to outside and away from in-house, and a lower likelihood of change to inside.

ACS Style

Raymond Gradus; Martijn Schoute; Tjerk Budding. Shifting modes of service delivery in Dutch local government. Journal of Economic Policy Reform 2019, 1 -14.

AMA Style

Raymond Gradus, Martijn Schoute, Tjerk Budding. Shifting modes of service delivery in Dutch local government. Journal of Economic Policy Reform. 2019; ():1-14.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Raymond Gradus; Martijn Schoute; Tjerk Budding. 2019. "Shifting modes of service delivery in Dutch local government." Journal of Economic Policy Reform , no. : 1-14.

Journal article
Published: 01 April 2019 in Waste Management
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This study investigates the drivers of unit-based pricing systems for waste in the Netherlands using an administrative database from 1999 until 2017. As these unit based pricing systems are effective in reducing waste, more and more Dutch municipalities adopt these programs. Based on their incentive, systems are ranged from green ('weight' or 'bag') to less green ('frequency' or 'volume'), or not green ('flat rate'). In one-third of the municipalities shifts took place from one unit-based pricing system to the other, with 84 percent becoming greener and 16 percent less green. There is some evidence for political motivation of these shifts. Particularly, Social Liberals councilors are in favor of waste pricing, whereas Social Democrats councilors are not in favor. In addition, municipalities in low income and less political fragmented councils are more in favor of waste pricing.

ACS Style

Raymond Gradus; Elbert Dijkgraaf. Poorer and less political fragmented Dutch municipalities take tighter waste reduction decisions. Waste Management 2019, 88, 328 -336.

AMA Style

Raymond Gradus, Elbert Dijkgraaf. Poorer and less political fragmented Dutch municipalities take tighter waste reduction decisions. Waste Management. 2019; 88 ():328-336.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Raymond Gradus; Elbert Dijkgraaf. 2019. "Poorer and less political fragmented Dutch municipalities take tighter waste reduction decisions." Waste Management 88, no. : 328-336.

Journal article
Published: 07 January 2019 in Resources, Conservation and Recycling
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This study investigates the drivers of curbside recycling program adoption and Pay as You Throw (PAYT) program adoption in 1,856 US local governments using a 2015 survey. While 50% of municipalities and counties adopt curbside recycling programs, we find that the adoption of curbside recycling is limited by capacity constraints; local governments with lower per capita public expenditures and more poverty are less likely to implement curbside recycling. PAYT programs are less common overall (10% of municipalities) and less common in richer communities and more common in communities with higher education levels. Local official political affiliation is not significant in either model. Both programs are less likely in rural places. Our results point to the need for local governments adopting such innovations to address equity, capacity constraints, and efficiency concerns.

ACS Style

Raymond Gradus; George C. Homsy; Lu Liao; Mildred E. Warner. Which US municipalities adopt Pay-As-You-Throw and curbside recycling? Resources, Conservation and Recycling 2019, 143, 178 -183.

AMA Style

Raymond Gradus, George C. Homsy, Lu Liao, Mildred E. Warner. Which US municipalities adopt Pay-As-You-Throw and curbside recycling? Resources, Conservation and Recycling. 2019; 143 ():178-183.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Raymond Gradus; George C. Homsy; Lu Liao; Mildred E. Warner. 2019. "Which US municipalities adopt Pay-As-You-Throw and curbside recycling?" Resources, Conservation and Recycling 143, no. : 178-183.

Journal article
Published: 11 October 2018 in The Social Science Journal
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Citizen engagement is a key component of democracy, especially in local governments. It is seen as a way to generate input and support, and to find creative solutions to problems and challenges governments face. Currently, Western democracies are witnessing a challenge in which citizens have less trust in their government. This explorative study examines if citizen engagement is a valuable strategy based on citizen panels of three Dutch municipalities. Four different direct forms of citizen engagement are studied: (1) attending a council meeting, (2) an information meeting, (3) conversation with an official, and (4) other forms of citizen engagement (e.g. social media or letter). The regression results indicate that the different forms of direct citizen engagement seem not to contribute to the amount of trust citizen panel members have in their own municipality. Attending a council meeting, a conversation with an official and other forms of engagement seem to have no or a negative effect on trust. In addition, the number of times that citizens engage seems not to or even negatively contributes to the amount of trust that they have in their municipality.

ACS Style

Vinitha Siebers; Raymond Gradus; René Grotens. Citizen engagement and trust: A study among citizen panel members in three Dutch municipalities. The Social Science Journal 2018, 56, 545 -554.

AMA Style

Vinitha Siebers, Raymond Gradus, René Grotens. Citizen engagement and trust: A study among citizen panel members in three Dutch municipalities. The Social Science Journal. 2018; 56 (4):545-554.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Vinitha Siebers; Raymond Gradus; René Grotens. 2018. "Citizen engagement and trust: A study among citizen panel members in three Dutch municipalities." The Social Science Journal 56, no. 4: 545-554.

Research article
Published: 01 August 2018 in Urban Affairs Review
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This article analyzes shifts in the delivery mode of waste collection in Dutch municipalities between 1999 and 2014. In approximately half of these entities, shifts took place, with 60% toward outside production and 40% toward inside production. In recent years, the number of shifts dropped remarkably, and re-municipalization has become more important. In addition, the amount of municipalities with reverse privatization is larger than that of privatization. Based on a logit model, some evidence of an ideological motivation for changing the mode of production is found. Conservative liberals are in favor of changing, particularly toward the market and privatization, whereas social democrats, in particular, are against change. These results provide some evidence for the unemployment or scale argument for changing the mode as well. In addition, there is an indication that political fragmentation increases the ability to privatize.

ACS Style

Raymond Gradus; Tjerk Budding. Political and Institutional Explanations for Increasing Re-municipalization. Urban Affairs Review 2018, 56, 538 -564.

AMA Style

Raymond Gradus, Tjerk Budding. Political and Institutional Explanations for Increasing Re-municipalization. Urban Affairs Review. 2018; 56 (2):538-564.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Raymond Gradus; Tjerk Budding. 2018. "Political and Institutional Explanations for Increasing Re-municipalization." Urban Affairs Review 56, no. 2: 538-564.

Articles
Published: 17 May 2018 in Local Government Studies
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In the Netherlands, electronic service delivery has become an important issue in many municipalities. Using the Internet for service delivery is seen as an important element of e-government. Based on 2014–2016 panel data for all Dutch municipalities, we show that there is a large variety among the municipalities in the extent to which they offer their service delivery digitally. By exploring the factors that may explain the differences among the municipalities, some trends can be discerned. Most notably is the strong relationship of e-government adoption with demographic characteristics, such as population, population density and both older age and younger age groups. Remarkably, we did not find an influence of education and income. Finally, we did not observe a relation between municipal allocated costs and level of e-maturity, hereby leaving the question open if and how e-government can lead to cost reductions.

ACS Style

Tjerk Budding; Bram Faber; Raymond Gradus. Assessing electronic service delivery in municipalities: determinants and financial consequences of e-government implementation. Local Government Studies 2018, 44, 697 -718.

AMA Style

Tjerk Budding, Bram Faber, Raymond Gradus. Assessing electronic service delivery in municipalities: determinants and financial consequences of e-government implementation. Local Government Studies. 2018; 44 (5):697-718.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Tjerk Budding; Bram Faber; Raymond Gradus. 2018. "Assessing electronic service delivery in municipalities: determinants and financial consequences of e-government implementation." Local Government Studies 44, no. 5: 697-718.

Article
Published: 26 February 2018 in Nonprofit Management and Leadership
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Outsourcing of detention is complex due to quality risks from incomplete contracts, the public responsibility for sentencing and execution, and related social opinions. In the Netherlands, prison services are extensively outsourced—particularly for juvenile detention and internal forensic psychiatric care—to nonprofit organizations. In the Dutch experience, we have not found differences between public and nonprofit execution with respect to the type of contract, costs, performance indicators such as escapes and violence against personnel. The Dutch experience shows that outsourcing to nonprofit organizations can be an alternative to outsourcing to private entrepreneurs.

ACS Style

Mattheus Wassenaar; Raymond Gradus; Toon Molleman. Are nonprofit prisons an alternative? Some experiences in the Netherlands. Nonprofit Management and Leadership 2018, 28, 529 -537.

AMA Style

Mattheus Wassenaar, Raymond Gradus, Toon Molleman. Are nonprofit prisons an alternative? Some experiences in the Netherlands. Nonprofit Management and Leadership. 2018; 28 (4):529-537.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Mattheus Wassenaar; Raymond Gradus; Toon Molleman. 2018. "Are nonprofit prisons an alternative? Some experiences in the Netherlands." Nonprofit Management and Leadership 28, no. 4: 529-537.

Preprint
Published: 22 September 2017 in SSRN Electronic Journal
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ACS Style

Tjerk Budding; Bram Faber; Raymond H.J.M. Gradus. Assessing Electronic Service Delivery in Municipalities. SSRN Electronic Journal 2017, 1 .

AMA Style

Tjerk Budding, Bram Faber, Raymond H.J.M. Gradus. Assessing Electronic Service Delivery in Municipalities. SSRN Electronic Journal. 2017; ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Tjerk Budding; Bram Faber; Raymond H.J.M. Gradus. 2017. "Assessing Electronic Service Delivery in Municipalities." SSRN Electronic Journal , no. : 1.

Preprint
Published: 22 September 2017 in SSRN Electronic Journal
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ACS Style

Raymond H.J.M. Gradus; Elbert Dijkgraaf. Dutch Municipalities are Becoming Greener: Some Political and Institutional Explanations. SSRN Electronic Journal 2017, 1 .

AMA Style

Raymond H.J.M. Gradus, Elbert Dijkgraaf. Dutch Municipalities are Becoming Greener: Some Political and Institutional Explanations. SSRN Electronic Journal. 2017; ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Raymond H.J.M. Gradus; Elbert Dijkgraaf. 2017. "Dutch Municipalities are Becoming Greener: Some Political and Institutional Explanations." SSRN Electronic Journal , no. : 1.

Journal article
Published: 01 May 2017 in Ecological Economics
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ACS Style

Raymond H.J.M. Gradus; Paul H.L. Nillesen; Elbert Dijkgraaf; Rick J. van Koppen. A Cost-effectiveness Analysis for Incineration or Recycling of Dutch Household Plastic Waste. Ecological Economics 2017, 135, 22 -28.

AMA Style

Raymond H.J.M. Gradus, Paul H.L. Nillesen, Elbert Dijkgraaf, Rick J. van Koppen. A Cost-effectiveness Analysis for Incineration or Recycling of Dutch Household Plastic Waste. Ecological Economics. 2017; 135 ():22-28.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Raymond H.J.M. Gradus; Paul H.L. Nillesen; Elbert Dijkgraaf; Rick J. van Koppen. 2017. "A Cost-effectiveness Analysis for Incineration or Recycling of Dutch Household Plastic Waste." Ecological Economics 135, no. : 22-28.

Preprint
Published: 20 February 2017 in SSRN Electronic Journal
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Outsourcing of detention is a complex public task, due to quality risks from incomplete contracts, the public responsibility for sentencing and execution, and related social opinions. In the Netherlands, the debate about the outsourcing of prison services to the private profit sector has recently restarted. At the same time, in the Netherlands there is extensive experience of outsourcing prison services – in particular for juvenile detention and internal forensic psychiatric care – to nonprofit organizations. In the Dutch experience, we have not found differences between public and nonprofit execution, with respect to the type of contract with the prisons, costs and quality. The Dutch experience shows that outsourcing to nonprofit entrepreneurs in civil society can be an alternative to outsourcing to the private market.

ACS Style

Mattheus Wassenaar; Raymond Gradus; Toon Molleman. Public vs. Nonprofit Incarceration: The Case of the Netherlands. SSRN Electronic Journal 2017, 1 .

AMA Style

Mattheus Wassenaar, Raymond Gradus, Toon Molleman. Public vs. Nonprofit Incarceration: The Case of the Netherlands. SSRN Electronic Journal. 2017; ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Mattheus Wassenaar; Raymond Gradus; Toon Molleman. 2017. "Public vs. Nonprofit Incarceration: The Case of the Netherlands." SSRN Electronic Journal , no. : 1.

Preprint
Published: 24 November 2016 in SSRN Electronic Journal
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The European Union (EU) advocates a plastic waste recycling rate of more than 55% through home separation by households. Even for the Netherlands, which has already invested heavily in plastic recycling policies, there is still a challenge to meet this target. We show that post separation is an advisable alternative with more separation of plastic waste and lower collection costs. Based on data for 2013-2014, Dutch municipalities with post-separation have 6.2 kilogram more plastic than municipalities with only bring locations. Moreover, the effectiveness of post separation increases significantly over time to 8.4 kilograms in 2014. Also curbside collection of plastic waste can be effective, if it is combined with an unit-based pricing system, but in such a case the collection costs are higher. Therefore, there are indications that the cost effectiveness of recycling plastic waste increases, if post separation is chosen.

ACS Style

Elbert Dijkgraaf; Raymond Gradus. Post Separation of Plastic Waste: Better for the Environment and Lower Collection Costs. SSRN Electronic Journal 2016, 1 .

AMA Style

Elbert Dijkgraaf, Raymond Gradus. Post Separation of Plastic Waste: Better for the Environment and Lower Collection Costs. SSRN Electronic Journal. 2016; ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Elbert Dijkgraaf; Raymond Gradus. 2016. "Post Separation of Plastic Waste: Better for the Environment and Lower Collection Costs." SSRN Electronic Journal , no. : 1.

Article
Published: 02 June 2016 in Environmental and Resource Economics
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The European Union (EU) advocates a household waste recycling rate of more than 65 %. Although the Netherlands has already invested heavily in recycling policies, this is still a big challenge as nowadays this rate is approximately 50 % on average and very few no municipalities have a rate above 65 %. Given this practice, it is possible to learn from the Dutch experience which policies are effective in increasing recycling rates. Based on a large panel data set for the Netherlands, we show that unit-based pricing, avoiding a duo-bin for unsorted and compostable waste, and reducing the frequency of collecting unsorted and compostable waste at the curbside are effective in raising the recycling rate. However, only a bag-based pricing system has a substantial effect, but this policy can have some adverse effects. Other unit-based pricing systems have effects of less than 10 % points. In nearly all cases, changing the frequency of collection of recyclables has no or very small effects. Moreover, the complementarity between unit-based pricing and curbside service is low. Overall, it seems very difficult to reach the EU goal of 65 % with the policies applied.

ACS Style

Elbert Dijkgraaf; R.H.J.M. Gradus. An EU Recycling Target: What Does the Dutch Evidence Tell Us? Environmental and Resource Economics 2016, 68, 501 -526.

AMA Style

Elbert Dijkgraaf, R.H.J.M. Gradus. An EU Recycling Target: What Does the Dutch Evidence Tell Us? Environmental and Resource Economics. 2016; 68 (3):501-526.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Elbert Dijkgraaf; R.H.J.M. Gradus. 2016. "An EU Recycling Target: What Does the Dutch Evidence Tell Us?" Environmental and Resource Economics 68, no. 3: 501-526.