The Impact of Mafia-Related Council Dissolutions on Municipal Waste Management in Italy: Evidence from a Panel Event Study

This study seeks to enhance understanding of the impact of mafia infiltration on urban waste management public services. It examines whether organized crime represents a major obstacle to the transition to a circular economy and the advancement of the waste hierarchy. We investigated the effects of municipal council dissolution—a legal measure by which the central government removes and replaces an elected local government due to documented mafia infiltration—on Italian municipalities on three key variables relevant to urban waste management: the rate of separate waste collection, per-capita total waste generation, and per-capita unsorted waste generation. To achieve the research objective, a panel event study using annual municipal-level data for the period 2010–2021 was conducted. Results show that municipalities, following dissolution and subsequent administrative reorganization under a government-appointed extraordinary commission, increase their separate collection rate and reduce waste generation, aligning with EU waste hierarchy targets and underscoring the connection between mafia infiltration, maladministration, and diminished environmental performance in urban waste management.