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Effects of Norms and Opportunity Cost of Time on Household Recycling
- Land Economics
- University of Wisconsin Press
- Volume 84, Number 3, August 2008
- pp. 501-516
- Article
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Social and moral norms and the opportunity cost of time will affect household recycling efforts. A model is developed to describe how norms affect the recycling decision through feelings of self-respect, guilty conscience, and warm-glow, as well as respect in, and sanctions from, the community. We find that the opportunity cost of time has a significant negative effect on household recycling. All indicators of warm-glow, social, and moral norms increase household recycling efforts. We find no evidence of crowding-out, neither when recycling is perceived as mandatory, nor when economic incentives are introduced in the form of a differentiated garbage fee.