Social Norms,Morals and Self-interest as Determinants of Pro-environment Behaviours: The Case of Household Recycling

This paper considers the role which selfish, moral and social incentives and pressures play in explaining the extent to which stated choices over pro-environment behaviours vary across individuals. The empirical context is choices over household waste contracts and recycling actions in Poland. A theoretical model is used to show how cost-based motives and the desire for a positive self and social image combine to determine the utility from alternative choices of recycling behaviour. We then describe a discrete choice experiment designed to empirically investigate the effects such drivers have on stated choices. A hybrid logit model is used to link statements over attitudes to recycling to choices, dealing with a potential endogeneity problem caused by the joint effects of un-observables on attitudes and choices. We find that a substantial share of our respondents prefer to sort their waste at home rather than in a central sorting facility. This preference is associated with a moral/intrinsic motivation, involving a belief that sorting at home is more thorough than central sorting.     

ENDOGENOUS CONSUMER PARTICIPATION AND THE RECYCLING PROBLEM*

We endogenise the extent of consumer participation in the recycling process, and analyse its effect on the ‘recycling problem’. When recycling requires consumers to undertake costly sorting activities to separate scrap from household waste, they will participate only if the net reward from sorting is positive. Consumers' sorting cost is subject to a network effect arising due to social norms. With heterogeneous consumers differing in terms of their sorting cost, the entire output of the recyclable product may not be subsequently available as scrap to the recycling firms. This increases the virgin producer's monopoly power, and may also lead to multiple equilibria if the network effect of sorting is sufficiently large. The latter result suggests a role for the government in influencing equilibrium selection to improve social welfare. Depending on the fraction of consumers that participate in recycling, increased societal pressure on consumers to recycle may decrease consumer participation and increase the virgin producer's market power.     

What drives compliance? An application of the theory of planned behaviour to urban water restrictions using structural equation modelling

This article presents analysis of households’ intentions to comply with government constraints on the use of urban water, or so-called water restrictions. The data are drawn from Australian cities and was collected during a severe drought. Structural equation modelling is employed to operationalize constructs taken from the theory of planned behaviour and to answer important policy questions related to compliance. The modelled data support the view that attitudes, social norms and perceived behavioural control (PBC) have a positive and significant influence on intentions to comply. PBC has the strongest influence on intentions, suggesting policy directed at assisting households to meet regulatory criteria might be at least as effective as advertising expenditures aimed at shaping attitudes and norms. Importantly, intentions to comply are also shown to have a positive and significant influence on reported compliance behaviour.     

农户宅基地退出意愿及其影响因素分析——基于安徽省6县1413个农户调查的实证研究

了解农户对宅基地的退出意愿和利益诉求,对合理、有序、公正地推进农户宅基地退出具有重要的现实意义。通过对安徽省6县1413个农户的问卷调查分析,文章得出以下结论:农村居民居住条件得到改善,砖混结构占大多数;宅基地以及房屋的闲置情况也较为严重,有85.5%的宅基地没有被有效利用;在一定的前提下,有90%的农户愿意退出宅基地,其中影响农户退出宅基地的因素依次为就业、养老、生活费用和农业生产;农户所在区位、年龄和参保情况对农户宅基地退出意愿有一定的影响;远郊农民的宅基地退出意愿更强。基于以上结论,文章最后提出社保先行于宅基地退出,以及优先考虑远郊农民等政策建议。     

农村公共品建设意愿一致性研究 ——基于我国“十县百村”的实证分析

本文利用“十县百村”的大样本调研数据研究农村公共品建设意愿的一致性问题。统计分析表明,农户最需要的三类公共品分别是乡村道路、灌溉设施和农村社会保障。通过对比村级和农户的公共品建设意愿发现,农村公共品建设的一致性程度很低。进而本文采用多元logit分析和线性回归分析得出影响一致性的因素有：性别、是否党员、是否从事农业生产、人均土地面积、是否是新农村示范村、村长是否选举、村级公共开支总额。本文最后提出了相关的政策建议。     

我国居民家庭子女教育投资动机的经济学分析

我国城市居民家庭在子女教育投资方面,一般会受到流动性约束的影响,并且父母的当期收入会影响到对子女当期教育的投资;父母对于子女教育投资的动机主要符合贷款合同模型,即父母对于子女的教育投资是暗含后期回报的合同,这一合同主要通过家庭的某种内在机制和社会道德标准来执行的.基于这样的结论,笔者认为,为扩大父母对子女教育方面的合理投资,国家应该建立健全教育方面的金融渠道,提供符合我国国情的教育贷款或保险,使父母对子女的教育的投资更加平滑.     

INCOME,CONSUMPTION AND SAVING IN URBAN AND RURAL INDIA*

The main purpose of the study is to determine the savings potential of urban and rural households in India and in the process determine the possible savings and consumption functions separately for urban and rural areas. Four different possible functions have been used for determining the savings behaviour of the households both at the aggregate level and at the per capita level. The rural households, according to the results, have an extremely low rate of saving with income elasticity of saving of less than unity. For the urban households on the other hand, the income elasticity of saving is high enough to suggest the possibilities of considerably high savings potential. To understand the consumption behaviour of these households, the long-run and the short-run marginal propensities to consume and the marginal propensities to consume out of‘permanent’ or ‘normal’ income and ‘transitory’ income have been worked out. For the urban sector none of these give encouraging enough results and the analysis has been extended to examine whether other factors like prices and household assets are of any significance. Whereas for the rural sector, Milton Friedman's theory of ‘permanent’ or ‘normal’ income is somewhat substantiated, other factors like ‘transitory’ income, prices and assets appear to inthence urban consumption behaviour though no single one of them substantially enough. A negligible effect of ‘permanent’ income on urban consumption behaviour is, on the other hand, very clearly suggested by the results. Household consumption and savings have next been projected using the above results to determine the possible levels for the next three years. The results suggest that the rate of domestic savings likely to be achieved by the end of the Third Five Year Plan (1965–66) falls short of the targets laid down.     

“互联网+再生资源回收”模式推进机制的三方演化博弈研究

随着垃圾分类政策逐步在全国范围内推行,一些企业将互联网技术与垃圾分类回收相结合,提出了“互联网+再生资源回收”的新模式,但目前该模式仍处于探索阶段,想要在全国范围内推广还有诸多问题需要解决。论文基于演化博弈论理论,构建“互联网+再生资源回收”模式下城市生活垃圾分类回收的演化博弈模型,对博弈三方行为决策进行分析以及仿真验证,研究结果表明:政府的监督成本、政府提供给垃圾分类企业和居民的财政补贴、政府对垃圾分类企业的行政处罚力度以及居民参与垃圾分类的直接收益等因素是制约三方演化博弈能否达到理想均衡状态的关键,进一步分析模型成因,并针对结果提出几点建议。     

Household Transport Demand in a CGE-framework

The main objective of this study is to improve the modelling of household demand for transport services in a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model. The new extended model is then used for numerical calculations to test how the Swedish economy reacts to a carbon target. Special attention will be given to distributional effects and the connection between labour supply and work journeys in a sparsely populated country like Sweden. A differentiation between trip purposes and trip length, a complementary relationship between work journeys and labour supply, and a subdivision of households by density of population and income influence the numerical results. Our main conclusions from the analysis of a carbon target are that if the carbon tax revenue is recycled by decreasing the employers’ social contribution fee, welfare costs are lower than with lump-sum replacements of tax revenue to households. The welfare cost may be reduced even further if work journeys are not additionally taxed as compared to the base year. However, the lower total welfare cost is obtained at the expense of making society more unequal, since both labour tax recycling (cuts in employers’ social contributions) and exempting tax on work journeys will make low income groups carry a higher burden. An increased carbon dioxide tax is also shown to increase welfare differences between sparsely populated areas and city regions in Sweden.      

Household repayment behavior: The role of social capital and institutional,political, and religious beliefs

We examine the influence of social capital and various prevailing beliefs on household repayment behavior in Europe, after accounting for household-specific characteristics and country differences in institutions. Arrears are more common among households living in regions with dense corruption beliefs, low confidence in institutions and authorities, and a low fraction of religious people. Moreover, high stocks of social capital reduce the likelihood of arrears, net of the influence of various potentially relevant factors. Households in these communities face a higher hazard of losing standing in the group and access to the positive externalities of social capital.     

Social interactions in small groups

Abstract.  In the well‐known 'critical mass' model of social interactions, aggregate behaviour exhibits multiple equilibria if the influence of group behaviour on individual behaviour exceeds some fairly high threshold. I demonstrate that this property depends on an implicit assumption that the relevant social group is large (infinite). With small (finite) social groups, the same model exhibits multiplicity whenever group behaviour exerts any influence. The range of equilibrium group behaviour depends on the size of the social group as well as its strength of influence. Brief applications on youth smoking and retirement planning demonstrate the implications of these results for applied work. JEL classification: Z13, D00     

Fuel choices and fuelwood use for residential heating and cooking in urban areas of central-southern Chile: The role of prices,income, and the availability of energy sources and technology

This paper empirically analyzes the determinants of fuel choices and intensity of fuelwood use for residential heating and cooking in central-southern Chile. By using information from a sample of 2761 households in nine urban areas, we first investigate households’ choices of the main fuel used for heating by means of multinomial models. Then we examine the intensity of fuelwood use through fractional probit models. These models allow analyzing the interdependence of fuel use by households, while taking into account households’ individual heterogeneity. Our results indicate that households’ fuel choices are mainly driven by socioeconomic and dwelling characteristics. Moreover, while there is a component of fuelwood use that cannot be influenced by energy policies, such as meteorological conditions across the country, there are a number of characteristics that influence the share of the households’ energy production which is generated by fuelwood. These factors range from socioeconomic characteristics to the households’ perceptions regarding the link between air pollution and use of fuelwood, which presents an opportunity for designing future policy interventions aimed at incentivizing the adoption of cleaner devices.     

Humanistic economics: The new Challenge: A review essay

This paper discusses the role of social, institutional, and psychological factors in the consumption and borrowing behavior of low-income households, and makes arguments in favor of policy interventions to alleviate some of the challenges of these households. Focus group evidence and findings on the current behaviors and borrowing patterns of low-income families are provided to support and motivate this perspective on consumption and policy. While the data are drawn from a specific region, the observations and findings could be generalized to other communities after accounting for different cultural and social characteristics. This research provides an in-depth understanding of the challenges confronted by low-income individuals at achieving their economic desires for lives of basic dignity, explores both economic and non-economic motivations, and provides insights useful for policy deliberation and model development.     

跨层次研究视角下的社会资本与创新绩效——理论框架与实证模型

如何强化员工的知识分享和创新绩效来建立企业的核心竞争优势并维持较高的创新水平,是企业面临的重要挑战。本文对社会资本的基本理论及其与个体创新绩效相关的文献进行了回顾,同时就知识分享和组织学习型文化相关的文献进行综述发现,组织环境因素能够对个体创新绩效产生直接影响,但更重要的是通过其与个体因素的交互作用,共同对个体创新绩效产生影响。因此,推导出一个跨层次研究模型,建立了个体层次的知识分享与组织层次的学习型文化对个体层次社会资本与创新绩效交互作用的影响模型与假设。本研究拟使用社会网络分析软件UCINET、统计软件SPSS以及多层线性模型分析软件HLM对实证模型进行分析。以期验证组织层次的学习型文化通过组织共有的思维模式和行为规范来影响个体层次的个体成员的知识分享和创新绩效,使个体和组织得到共同的成长与发展。     

The interest elasticity of household savings: a structural approach with German micro data

This paper empirically investigates the effects of changes in the interest rate as well as in the current and expected future consumer price levels on households’ consumption–savings decision. In a structural demand model applied to German consumption data, we use cross-sectional and longitudinal variation in prices and tax rates to construct individual after-tax interest rates and cluster-specific consumer prices. We find that the compensated own-price elasticities for savings as well as consumption are significantly negative, while the theoretical model implications of homogeneity and symmetry must be rejected. Importantly, we estimate the uncompensated interest rate elasticity of savings, in line with the literature, at around zero. Some heterogeneity in this elasticity is found along the savings and wealth distribution. We conclude that short-term policy-induced variation of net returns to savings is expected to have no significant effects on the level of compound savings.     

Immigrant Parents and Children: An Analysis of Decisions Related to Return Migration

It is not unusual for immigrants to leave the host country and resettle permanently in their country of origin. This paper examines the interaction among some of the key factors that influence the return decision of immigrant households. These include purely economic variables such as wages of the two countries and the costs and benefits of accumulating country-specific human capital, but also subjective factors such as the intensity of the locational preferences of immigrant parents and children and of their desire to remain together in a single location. The analysis is conducted under alternative assumptions with respect to the role of parents and children in the household's decision-making process.     

情境因素对城市居民废旧家电回收行为的影响

在文献研究和对317名城市居民进行问卷调查的基础上,使用分层调节回归分析方法,探讨了环境知识、回收渠道和公众宣传等情境因素对居民废旧家电回收行为意向和回收行为的调节效应。实证研究结果表明,随着居民所拥有的相关环境知识的增加,居民的自我能力对其参与废旧家电回收行为的影响程度也显著增强;在废旧电器回收领域对居民开展的公众宣传活动力度越大,则越有助于促进居民的回收行为意向转变为最终的回收行为;回收渠道越便利则居民的废旧家电回收行为越积极,但回收渠道仅只是废旧家电回收行为的解释变量而非情境变量。     

Jailer of freedom and enemy of growth?* The role of personal and social identities in educational choices

This paper develops a theoretical and empirical model on the influence of identity on educational choices which extends the existing literature in several directions. The theoretical model proposed here allows schooling choices to be independently influenced by both personal and social identities and, in contrast to previous work, the proposed empirical counterpart is derived directly from the theoretical model. The use of UK’s British Cohort Study on individuals born in 1970 allows us to identify with precision the relevant explanatory factors and to appropriately control for potentially confounding factors. Both social and personal identities are found to have substantial and statistically significant effects on educational participation decisions and these impacts are robust to a variety of specifications. The key implication is that socio-psychological factors play an important role in children’s school performance through their direct influence on the utility derived from studying.     

Why econometricians don't replicate (although they do reproduce)

This article attempts to give a more formal statement of the model of the problem of replication given in Harry Collins' Changing order, and to apply the model to a recent controversy over the lack of replication of econometric research in the economics literature. This paper shows that due to problems in defining ‘asymptotically satisfactory replication’ in conjunction with strong incentives to ‘reproduce’ (i.e., to extend any empirical result in a ‘constructive’ manner), it is highly unlikely that scientists will engage in replication behaviour. We conclude with some observations on the need to restructure the social structures of science in order to encourage a higher level of replication.     

A Model of Creative Destruction with Undiversifiable Risk and Optimising Households

This paper studies optimal household behaviour in a model of creative destruction. The saving technology is characterised by stochastic returns that follow a Poisson process. It is shown that equilibrium conditions with optimising households differ substantially from equilibrium conditions where investment in R&D is determined by firms. Three out of four market failures disappear and a new market failure resulting from a complementarity in financing R&D is identified. Studying the social optimum shows that it contains as the special case of risk neutrality the social optimum derived in the literature.