Luca Panzone (Newcastle University), 5 May, 2016, 4:30pm, NUBS 1.13

Speaker: Luca Panzone, Newcastle University 

Title: A Price is a Guide: External and Internalised Motivations and the English Plastic Bag Charge  

Date & Time: 5 May 2016 (Thursday), 4:30-5:45 PM

Venue:  Newcastle University Business School, Room 1.13

                  5 Barrack Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4SE 

Abstract:

We measure the behavioural and motivational impacts of a legislative change in England that required supermarkets to charge for new plastic carrier bags issued. Using a difference-in-difference estimator, we find that those who became subject to the charge used 1.7 new less plastic bags per shopping trip after seven weeks (an estimated reduction of more than 50 percent in a short timeframe) and that the charge led changes in internalised attitudes toward plastic bag use. Specifically, we find increased acceptance of the government’s role in regulating plastic bag use and internalised motivation to reduce their use (‘crowding in’). We also find that the price effect grows over time, whereas the internal motivation effect falls. Using mediation analysis, we find that seven weeks after the policy is introduced the price change explains 90% of the reduction in new plastic bags used, while the change in motivation explains only 10% of the reduction.

Last modified: Mon, 11 Apr 2016 19:07:38 BST