The role of wastepaper in the pulp and paper industry : investments, technical change and factor substitution

Abstract: Environmental concerns, both public and private, has resulted in, among other things, an increased wastepaper recovery. The segment of the economy this has had a major impact on is the pulp and paper industry since they are the prime user of wastepaper in the production of paper and paperboard. This, together with the fact that the pulp and paper industry is one of the larger actors in the European economies, has raised the question whether the increasing wastepaper recovery has in any profound way altered the structure of the pulp and paper industry. Hence, the overall purpose of this dissertation is to analyse the alleged increased importance of wastepaper as an input factor in the production of new paper and paperboard products. Specifically, the impact wastepaper has on the pulp and paper industry is analysed from three different aspects: (a) investment behaviour; (b) technological change; and (c) input factor substitutability. The dissertation contains six detached papers of which the three first analyse the investment behaviour, while the remaining three analyse technical change and input factor substitution possibilities. Papers I-III attempts to answer the question whether wastepaper availability