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Nudging food waste decisions at restaurants

Author

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  • Giaccherini, Matilde
  • Gilli, Marianna
  • Mancinelli, Susanna
  • Zoli, Mariangela

Abstract

This article evaluates the impact of two nudges on stimulating the use of doggy bags in restaurants. We run a field experiment at 14 restaurants in the province of Turin (Italy). In the first group of restaurants, we manipulated the descriptive social norm. In a second group we changed the default option - whereby customers asked for the doggy bag - by instead directing the waiter to automatically deliver the doggy bag unless told not to. A third group of restaurants was used as a control with no intervention. We find that the social norm intervention led to a sizeable increase in the use of doggy bags, while the default manipulation had a non-statistically significant impact.

Suggested Citation

  • Giaccherini, Matilde & Gilli, Marianna & Mancinelli, Susanna & Zoli, Mariangela, 2021. "Nudging food waste decisions at restaurants," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:135:y:2021:i:c:s0014292121000751
    DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2021.103722
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    Cited by:

    1. Ankinée KIRAKOZIAN & Raphaël CHIAPPINI & Nabila ARFAOUI, 2023. "Nudging employees for greener mobility A field experiment," Bordeaux Economics Working Papers 2023-09, Bordeaux School of Economics (BSE).
    2. Azzurra Annunziata & Francisco Luis Muca & Angela Mariani, 2022. "Preventing Household Food Waste in Italy: A Segmentation of the Population and Suggestions for Action," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-17, June.
    3. Cecilia Castaldo & Matilde Giaccherini & Giacomo Pallante & Alessandro Palma, 2024. "Unveiling Shades of Green Food beyond Labels. Evidence from an Online Experiment to Climate Adaptation," CESifo Working Paper Series 11161, CESifo.
    4. Buratto, Arianna & Lotti, Lorenzo, 2024. "Encouraging sustainable food consumption through nudges: An experiment with menu labels," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
    5. Zhang, Jin & Huang, Yidi & Zhu, Junming & Zhao, Lijun, 2023. "A meta-analysis on the effectiveness of food-waste reducing nudges," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Doggy bag; Social norm; Default option; Field experiment; Shame;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General
    • D90 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - General
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making

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