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Do individuals free ride on participation in environmental policies? Personal values and waste management practices

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  • Matsumoto, Shigeru

Abstract

Previous studies revealed that preferences for environmental policies differ among individuals, and the practice of pro-environmental activities varies considerably. If such heterogeneities exist, one natural question arises. How are preferences for environmental policies characterized? To answer this question, we analyze micro-level data from the 2002 Japanese General Social Survey (JGSS). JGSS is a nationwide survey and includes both sociodemographic information and respondents opinions on a variety of issues. In the 2002 survey, respondents were asked about their practices with respect to six types of waste management activities. We apply a Graded Response Model (GRM) to gauge the level of difficulty in engaging in these activities. Subsequently, we examine whether ideological orientation or trust in society determine the waste management ability of respondents, based on a two-sided truncation model. The empirical results demonstrate that neither ideological orientation nor trust in society influence the waste management ability of respondents. In contrast, we find that the demand for better environmental conditions influences waste management ability, and respondents who consider the government's environmental protection to be insufficient spend time on waste management activities. We also found that people who spend time on volunteer activities are also likely to spend time on waste management efforts.

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  • Matsumoto, Shigeru, 2020. "Do individuals free ride on participation in environmental policies? Personal values and waste management practices," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:174:y:2020:i:c:s0921800919315630
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2020.106669
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