A statistical information system supporting environmental policies

"Environment and sustainability are key issues for the policy maker. A policy should be first designed and realistically inserted in . its proper context (regional, national, European) in order to be correctly assessed. After that, suitable models need to be chosen . consistently with the policy context and with the evaluation purpose, to make easier the policy maker task. The aim of this paper . is twofold. Firstly, to propose a Statistical Information System (SIS) approach in order to correctly write the policy and verify its . internal and external consistency; secondly, to conceive model building with an evaluation purpose and not only with an . analytical one. This means that the model could be able to produce indicators useful to monitoring the policy other than macro . indicators whose function is to verify its long term sustainability. These concepts are applied to a specific regional environmental . policy: the premium/penalty system conceived to implement the separate collection in waste management. The SIS approach . allows us to verify the quality of disposable information, to complete and eventually integrate them with ad hoc surveys, in order . to build the environmental extended Social Accounting Matrix, the ESAM. This modelling, evaluation oriented, aims at verifying . the policy effects in the long term, i.e. looking at structural change concerning all institutional sectors (households, firms and . government). "