IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/endeec/v25y2020i2p95-114_1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What makes a ban on plastic bags effective? The case of Nepal

Author

Listed:
  • Bharadwaj, Bishal
  • Baland, Jean Marie
  • Nepal, Mani

Abstract

The extensive use of plastic bags in Nepal has led to growing concern in recent years. We investigate the impact of a municipal plastic bags ban on bags use behavior, based on a field survey carried out among consumers and retailers across selected municipalities. Our results indicate that the effectiveness of the ban critically depends on its enforcement and sanctioning system. In particular, our results suggest that the perceived sanction is a critical determinant of plastic bags use, as a doubling of the perceived sanction could reduce plastic bags use by two-thirds for retailers and by one-half for consumers. While the nominal amount of the fine does not seem to play a role, the probability of being detected appears to play a key role in the perceived sanction. This implies that effective monitoring of the ban by the municipal authorities is critical for the success of the policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Bharadwaj, Bishal & Baland, Jean Marie & Nepal, Mani, 2020. "What makes a ban on plastic bags effective? The case of Nepal," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 25(2), pages 95-114, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:endeec:v:25:y:2020:i:2:p:95-114_1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1355770X19000329/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Yong Li & Bairong Wang, 2021. "Go Green and Recycle: Analyzing the Usage of Plastic Bags for Shopping in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(23), pages 1-10, November.
    2. Tatiana Homonoff & Lee‐Sien Kao & Javiera Selman & Christina Seybolt, 2022. "Skipping the Bag: The Intended and Unintended Consequences of Disposable Bag Regulation," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(1), pages 226-251, January.
    3. Salinda Sedtha & Vilas Nitivattananon & Mokbul Morshed Ahmad & Simon Guerrero Cruz, 2022. "The First Step of Single-Use Plastics Reduction in Thailand," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-16, December.
    4. Tinggui Chen & Yuling Zhang & Jianjun Yang & Guodong Cong & Guozhang Jiang & Gongfa Li, 2021. "Behavior Strategy Analysis Based on the Multi-Stakeholder Game under the Plastic Straw Ban in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(23), pages 1-33, December.
    5. Cabrera, José María & Caffera, Marcelo & Cid, Alejandro, 2020. "Small Incentives May Have Large Effects: The Impact of Prices on the Demand for Plastic Bags," MPRA Paper 100178, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Nepal, Mani & Rai, Rajesh K. & Khadayat, Madan S. & Somanathan, E., 2020. "Value of cleaner neighborhoods: Application of hedonic price model in low income context," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).

    More about this item

    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:cup:endeec:v:25:y:2020:i:2:p:95-114_1. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/ede .

    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.