I attended the 15th European Meeting of the Urban Economics Association (UEA) , held on 8–9 May 2026 at the Centre de Recerca en Economia Internacional (CREI) in Barcelona, Spain. The meeting brought together researchers working on urban and spatial economics and featured keynote lectures by Professor Edward Glaeser (Harvard University). The conference covered a broad range of topics related to cities, housing, transportation, environmental challenges, spatial development, and urban policy.
At the conference, I presented my research on the spillover effects of China’s plastic waste import ban on international waste trade and environmental outcomes in recipient countries. The paper examines how China’s 2017 National Sword policy reshaped plastic-waste trade across Asian economies and whether the resulting reallocation generated local environmental externalities. Using monthly international trade data and geocoded waste-processing facilities, the study documents substantial redirection of plastic waste toward alternative recipient countries following the ban. I further combine these trade patterns with high-resolution satellite measures of PM2.5 to examine environmental impacts around waste-processing sites. The results indicate that areas surrounding processing facilities in countries receiving larger waste inflows have experienced measurable increases in local air pollution, highlighting the environmental consequences of international waste-trade reallocation.
Participating in the UEA meeting provided a valuable opportunity to present this work to researchers in urban, environmental, and spatial economics and to receive feedback on the empirical design, interpretation of the trade reallocation, and the connection between international trade shocks and localized environmental outcomes. The discussions were particularly helpful for refining the framing of the paper and strengthening the link between global policy interventions and their spatially concentrated consequences in recipient communities. I have subsequently incorporated these considerations into the ongoing revision of the paper, including additional robustness analyses and a more detailed assessment of the environmental and health implications of the estimated pollution effects.
Beyond my own presentation, the conference allowed me to engage with recent research on urban environmental externalities, spatial policy, housing markets, infrastructure, and climate-related challenges. These sessions provided useful methodological and substantive insights for my broader research agenda at the intersection of urban economics, environmental economics, and sustainable development.
Overall, attending the 15th European Meeting of the Urban Economics Association was highly beneficial for the development and dissemination of my research. It provided an opportunity to receive specialized academic feedback, exchange ideas with researchers working on related topics, and strengthen my engagement with the international urban economics research community.