Determinants of E-Waste Trade: A Comparative Analysis of Developed Vs Developing Countries

Abstract

The movement of goods and services across borders has been extensively studied, but the movement of e-waste, either globally or among developed and developing nations, has received less attention. This research intends to evaluate the transboundary flow of e-waste trade at the worldwide level between developed and developing nations throughout the period of 2006-2021. To better understand the inter- and intra-regional e-waste trade among developed and developing nations, this study first thoroughly examines the transboundary movement of e-waste trade and then assesses the direction of e-waste trade before and after 2012. The study utilizes Gephi software for the dynamic analysis of the transboundary movement and major destination markets of this e-waste imports. Secondly it utilizes the PPML for examining the impact of important determinants such as economic, political and environmental factors on the imports flows in these two sets of countries. The study's findings demonstrate that the majority of the world's e-waste trade is intra-regionally structured, with the highest quantities of trade occurring in America, Asia, and Europe. Interestingly, the majority of intra-regional trade occurs between developed economies, and these nations are also the primary receiver and destination markets for e-waste imports from developing nations. According to PPML's findings, developed nations' imports of e- waste are significantly influenced by economic, political, and environmental factors. But in the case of developing nations, economic and environmental factors are the main forces influencing the inflow of e-waste. The study's conclusions have important implications and pave the way for further research in the area of transboundary e-waste trade, since prior research in this area have mostly focused on developing nations as the main destination markets for this commodity trade. However, in the light of the findings of current study, the developed countries emerging as major recipients of e-waste moves the debate beyond the hazardous and negative implications of this commodity trade to some more productive and useful extractions out of these imports. It further implies to investigation of environmental policy efficacy and sophisticated recycling techniques to deal with this commodity imports.