How to detect illegal waste shipments? The case of the international trade in polyethylene waste
The purpose of this research is to provide a methodological framework that is able to enhance our capability to detect
illegal waste shipment with particular reference to waste plastics. Based on a very large cross-sectional dataset
covering 187 countries over the period 2002-2012, our study aims to do this by using both the mirror statistics method
and the network analysis. Specifically, by using mirror statistics, we identify the existence of a set of “suspicious”