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Behavioral spillovers from food-waste collection in Swedish municipalities

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  • Ek, Claes
  • Miliute-Plepiene, Jurate

Abstract

We estimate behavioral spillovers from environmental policy within the context of a natural experiment on food waste in Sweden. Exploiting the staggered implementation of food-waste collection across Swedish municipalities, we use a difference-in-difference design to measure the causal effect of introducing such collection on another pro-environmental behavior, namely the sorting of packaging waste. Results suggest a positive spillover effect on packaging waste which corresponds to 5–10% of the population average and rises gradually over time, possibly due to slow implementation of food-waste collection in many municipalities. These estimates are unconfounded with a number of shifts in the waste-related incentives facing households, e.g. introduction of curbside collection of packaging waste from single-family homes. Although we are unable to directly account for all such factors, indirect robustness tests provide no compelling evidence that estimated spillovers are spurious.

Suggested Citation

  • Ek, Claes & Miliute-Plepiene, Jurate, 2018. "Behavioral spillovers from food-waste collection in Swedish municipalities," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 168-186.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeeman:v:89:y:2018:i:c:p:168-186
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2018.01.004
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • D04 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Microeconomic Policy: Formulation; Implementation; Evaluation
    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • Q53 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling

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