IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp13925.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Effects of a Green Nudge on Municipal Solid Waste: Evidence from a Clear Bag Policy

Author

Listed:
  • Akbulut-Yuksel, Mevlude

    (Dalhousie University)

  • Boulatoff, Catherine

    (Dalhousie University)

Abstract

We explore the power of behavioral economic insights to influence the level of households' recycling and Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) by examining the effectiveness of a green nudge, the adoption of a Clear Bag Policy that was implemented in 2015 in a mid-size urban municipality in Canada. Using a Regression Discontinuity (RD) Design on universe administrative data, our analysis shows that this green nudge promoted recycling, and reduced both refuse and total MSW. While recycling increased by 15 percent, total MSW decreased by 27 percent overall between August 2015 and July 2017. Our results also demonstrate heterogeneity in response to a Clear Bag Policy across neighborhoods with varying socioeconomic indicators. Our findings suggest that green nudges can serve as effective policy instruments in devising future environment policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Akbulut-Yuksel, Mevlude & Boulatoff, Catherine, 2020. "The Effects of a Green Nudge on Municipal Solid Waste: Evidence from a Clear Bag Policy," IZA Discussion Papers 13925, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13925
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp13925.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. D'Amato, Alessio & Mancinelli, Susanna & Zoli, Mariangela, 2016. "Complementarity vs substitutability in waste management behaviors," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 84-94.
    2. Schubert, Christian, 2017. "Green nudges: Do they work? Are they ethical?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 329-342.
    3. Imbens, Guido W. & Lemieux, Thomas, 2008. "Regression discontinuity designs: A guide to practice," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 615-635, February.
    4. Hunt Allcott & Judd B. Kessler, 2019. "The Welfare Effects of Nudges: A Case Study of Energy Use Social Comparisons," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(1), pages 236-276, January.
    5. Alpízar, F. & Gsottbauer, E., 2015. "Reputation and household recycling practices: Field experiments in Costa Rica," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 366-375.
    6. Lee, David S. & Card, David, 2008. "Regression discontinuity inference with specification error," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 655-674, February.
    7. Ariely, Dan & Loewenstein, George & Prelec, Drazen, 2006. "Tom Sawyer and the construction of value," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 1-10, May.
    8. Cecere, Grazia & Mancinelli, Susanna & Mazzanti, Massimiliano, 2014. "Waste prevention and social preferences: the role of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 163-176.
    9. Sebastian Calonico & Matias D. Cattaneo & Max H. Farrell & Rocío Titiunik, 2019. "Regression Discontinuity Designs Using Covariates," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 101(3), pages 442-451, July.
    10. David S. Lee & Thomas Lemieux, 2010. "Regression Discontinuity Designs in Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(2), pages 281-355, June.
    11. Hunt Allcott & Todd Rogers, 2014. "The Short-Run and Long-Run Effects of Behavioral Interventions: Experimental Evidence from Energy Conservation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(10), pages 3003-3037, October.
    12. Paul J. Ferraro & Michael K. Price, 2013. "Using Nonpecuniary Strategies to Influence Behavior: Evidence from a Large-Scale Field Experiment," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(1), pages 64-73, March.
    13. Ankinée Kirakozian, 2016. "The determinants of household recycling: social influence, public policies and environmental preferences," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(16), pages 1481-1503, April.
    14. Carlsson, Fredrik & Johansson-Stenman, Olof, 2019. "Optimal Prosocial Nudging," Working Papers in Economics 757, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    15. Kinnaman, Thomas C. & Shinkuma, Takayoshi & Yamamoto, Masashi, 2014. "The socially optimal recycling rate: Evidence from Japan," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 54-70.
    16. Meyer, Andrew, 2015. "Does education increase pro-environmental behavior? Evidence from Europe," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 108-121.
    17. Carlsson, Fredrik & Gravert, Christina & Johansson-Stenman, Olof & Kurz, Verena, 2019. "Nudging as an Environmental Policy Instrument," Working Papers in Economics 756, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    18. Matias D. Cattaneo & Nicolas Idrobo & Rocio Titiunik, 2019. "A Practical Introduction to Regression Discontinuity Designs: Foundations," Papers 1911.09511, arXiv.org.
    19. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2015. "The path from cause to effect: mastering 'metrics," CentrePiece - The magazine for economic performance 442, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    20. Daniel A. Brent & Corey Lott & Michael Taylor & Joseph Cook & Kim Rollins & Shawn Stoddard, 2017. "Are Normative Appeals Moral Taxes? Evidence from a Field Experiment on Water Conservation," Departmental Working Papers 2017-07, Department of Economics, Louisiana State University.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ishimura, Yuichi, 2022. "The effects of the containers and packaging recycling law on the domestic recycling of plastic waste: Evidence from Japan," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 201(C).
    2. Klaus Eisenack, 2024. "Why Local Governments Set Climate Targets: Effects of City Size and Political Costs," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 87(11), pages 2935-2965, November.
    3. Lin, Wen & Nayga, Rodolfo M., 2022. "Green identity labeling, environmental information, and pro-environmental food choices," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    4. Hui Feng & Yirong Li & Renyan Mu & Lei Wu, 2023. "The Impact of Investment Efficiency in the Digital Economy on Urban Waste Reduction: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1-15, December.
    5. Ishimura, Yuichi & Shinkuma, Takayoshi & Takeuchi, Kenji & Hosoda, Eiji, 2024. "The effects of regional goal setting on household waste," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 215(C).
    6. Claes, Ek & Söderberg, Magnus & Kataria, Mitesh, 2024. "Can teaching children about the environment influence household behavior? Experiments in Swedish schools," Working Papers in Economics 848, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics, revised 14 Nov 2024.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Daniel A. Brent & Corey Lott & Michael Taylor & Joseph Cook & Kimberly Rollins & Shawn Stoddard, 2020. "What Causes Heterogeneous Responses to Social Comparison Messages for Water Conservation?," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 77(3), pages 503-537, November.
    2. Mauricio Villamizar‐Villegas & Freddy A. Pinzon‐Puerto & Maria Alejandra Ruiz‐Sanchez, 2022. "A comprehensive history of regression discontinuity designs: An empirical survey of the last 60 years," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(4), pages 1130-1178, September.
    3. Kettlewell, Nathan & Siminski, Peter, 2020. "Optimal Model Selection in RDD and Related Settings Using Placebo Zones," IZA Discussion Papers 13639, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Carolina Caetano & Gregorio Caetano & Juan Carlos Escanciano, 2023. "Regression discontinuity design with multivalued treatments," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(6), pages 840-856, September.
    5. Carolina Caetano & Gregorio Caetano & Juan Carlos Escanciano, 2023. "Regression discontinuity design with multivalued treatments," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(6), pages 840-856, September.
    6. Lange, Ian & Moro, Mirko & Rahman, Mohammad, 2014. "Policy Labels and Investment Decision-making," Stirling Economics Discussion Papers 2014-01, University of Stirling, Division of Economics.
    7. Likai Chen & Georg Keilbar & Liangjun Su & Weining Wang, 2023. "Inference on many jumps in nonparametric panel regression models," Papers 2312.01162, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2024.
    8. Yang He & Otávio Bartalotti, 2020. "Wild bootstrap for fuzzy regression discontinuity designs: obtaining robust bias-corrected confidence intervals," The Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 23(2), pages 211-231.
    9. Pasquini, Ricardo A., 2021. "Effects of regulating the brokerage commission in the rental market: Evidence from Buenos Aires," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    10. Quinn Andrew Wesley Keefer, 2021. "Did the 2011 Change to NFL Rookie Compensation Alter How Sunk Costs Affect Utilization?," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 22(4), pages 387-411, May.
    11. Louise Grogan & Fraser Summerfield, 2019. "Government Transfers, Work, and Wellbeing: Evidence from the Russian Old-Age Pension," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 32(4), pages 1247-1292, October.
    12. Matias D. Cattaneo & Rocío Titiunik, 2022. "Regression Discontinuity Designs," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 14(1), pages 821-851, August.
    13. Pengju Zhang & Phuong Nguyen‐Hoang & Na Chen, 2022. "The impact of home rule on municipal boundary and fiscal expansion: Evidence from Texas," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(5), pages 1442-1466, November.
    14. Quinn Keefer & Galib Rustamov, 2018. "Limited attention in residential energy markets: a regression discontinuity approach," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 55(3), pages 993-1017, November.
    15. Canaan, Serena, 2022. "Parental leave, household specialization and children’s well-being," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    16. Cuong Viet Nguyen & Finn Tarp, 2023. "Cash Transfers and Labor Supply: New Evidence on Impacts and Mechanisms," DERG working paper series 23-18, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. Development Economics Research Group (DERG).
    17. Blaise Melly & Rafael Lalive, 2020. "Estimation, Inference, and Interpretation in the Regression Discontinuity Design," Diskussionsschriften dp2016, Universitaet Bern, Departement Volkswirtschaft.
    18. Huber, Martin, 2019. "An introduction to flexible methods for policy evaluation," FSES Working Papers 504, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, University of Freiburg/Fribourg Switzerland.
    19. Ek, Claes & Söderberg, Magnus, 2024. "Norm-based feedback on household waste: Large-scale field experiments in two Swedish municipalities," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 238(C).
    20. 'Agoston Reguly, 2021. "Heterogeneous Treatment Effects in Regression Discontinuity Designs," Papers 2106.11640, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2021.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Municipal Solid Waste (MSW); green nudge; environmental policy; regression discontinuity design; ArcGIS;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13925. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.