Empirical studies on strategic interaction among municipality governments over disaster waste after the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake

Strategic interaction among governments has become a major focus of empirical and theoretical work in public economics. NIMBY is one application of the literature. In the present paper, we apply the NIMBY model to the disposal of disaster debris after the Great East Japan Earthquake when there was substantial concern over radioactive contamination following the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant incident. We empirically test the strategic interaction among municipality governments. We find strong evidence of such interaction. That is, in deciding whether to accept disaster waste, the municipality governments appear to keep a close eye on other municipality governments' choices.