Beverage Container Deposit Laws: A Survey of the Issues and Results

Much of the movement toward mandatory beverage deposit legislation has withered away in the current anti-regulation mood of the country. Even before the change in mood, the major focus of deposit laws was moving away from litter control and toward energy and resource savings. In fact, deposit laws have had a variety of repercussions on such factors as jobs, consumer prices, industry capital expenditures, energy consumption, and litter. The cooling emotions and lapse in time since most of the regulations were enacted provide a good opportunity to sort through the arguments and review the results. This paper attempts to present a balanced view of the issues surrounding this complicated topic. It find that the consequences of mandatory deposits have generally been somewhere between the initial predictions of groups favoring legislation and those opposing it.     

Home Warranties: An Analysis of an Emerging Development in Consumer Protection

Although warranty coverage on consumer products is a universally accepted form of protection, the extension of similar coverage to buyers of new and used homes is a developing practice. Home warranties serve a dual purpose: they reduce a homebuyer's risk of substantial financial loss, and protect the builder, seller or real estate vendor from legal liability should undisclosed material defects occur after a sale. In an effort to examine consumer reactions to home warranties, a mail survey was conducted of recent purchasers residing in four central counties of New York State. It was found that two-thirds of the 571 single-family homeowners who responded were aware of warranties on new housing and 97 percent were in favor of such coverage. Only 22 percent were aware of warranties for resale homes and 56 percent favored such coverage. Unexpected defects costing more than $100 were experienced by 55 percent of the sample. However, only 27 percent of the sample had defects which were warrantable under most current warranty programs.     

Orientations Toward Consumerism: A Test of a Two-Dimensional Theory

Some past studies concerning attitudes toward consumer public policy issues have attempted to distinguish characteristics of consumerism supporters from those of nonsupporters. Results to date have been largely inconsistent. This study incorporates a solution preference dimension into the supporter/nonsupporter analysis in order to help resolve past identification anomalies and to suggest a theoretical explanation for diverse orientations. More specifically, a two-dimensional theory of consumerism orientations is developed and tested as a special case of Rokeach's broader Two-Value Theory of Political Orientations. The survey data presented tend to general support the hypothesized theoretical structure.