Circular economy in cities: An economic theory to decouple economic development from waste

This paper constructs the economic model to consider the circular economy in cities from the waste management perspective. Specifically, we analyze the link between migration, natural capital, human capital, and waste management by extending the new economic geography model. We show the results; the population distribution pattern in the long run varies depending on the congestion effect of natural capital and waste management's technological level. In particular, a full agglomeration equilibrium realizes in the long-run for higher technological levels of waste management (lower congestion effects), an interior asymmetric equilibrium does for intermediate technological levels (intermediate congestion effects), and the symmetric dispersion equilibrium realizes for the lower technological levels (higher congestion effects)