Abstract

While recycling helps to limit the use of primary resources, it also requires considerable technological investments in regional circular flow systems. The effectiveness of recycling systems, however, also depends on household behavior. Therefore, current research increasingly focuses on behavioral and psychological theories of altruism, moral behavior, and social preferences. From an economic perspective, recycling systems can be understood as public goods with contributions resulting in positive externalities. In this context, the literature shows that recycling behavior highly depends on the perception of how others behave. In neutrally framed public good experiments, contributions tend to increase when alternative public goods are offered and group identity is generated. We aim to contribute to this discussion by observing household behavior concerning recycling opportunities in controlled settings. For this purpose, we study a laboratory experiment in which individuals contribute to recycling systems: At first, only one public recycling system (public good) is offered. After dividing societies into two clubs, “high” and “low” according to their environmental attitudes, excludable club systems (club goods) are added as alternative recycling options for each club. The results of our pilot experiment show that adding a more exclusive recycling club option increases individual contributions to recycling compared with a pure public good framework. However, this increase in cooperation is only significant for those clubs where members with higher environmental attitudes are pooled.

Graphic abstract

中文翻译：

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私人家庭的回收行为：俱乐部良好实验中个人偏好的实证研究

摘要

尽管回收有助于限制对主要资源的使用，但它还需要在区域循环流系统中进行大量技术投资。但是，回收系统的有效性还取决于家庭的行为。因此，当前的研究越来越关注利他行为，道德行为和社会偏好的行为和心理学理论。从经济学的角度来看，回收系统可以理解为公共产品，其贡献导致积极的外部性。在这种情况下，文献表明，回收行为在很大程度上取决于对他人行为的看法。在中立的公共物品实验中，当提供替代性公共物品并产生群体身份时，贡献往往会增加。我们旨在通过观察有关受控环境中回收机会的家庭行为，为这一讨论做出贡献。为此，我们研究了一个实验室实验，其中个人对回收系统做出了贡献：首先，仅提供了一个公共回收系统（公共物品）。在根据社会对环境的态度将社会分为“高”和“低”两个俱乐部之后，添加了排他性俱乐部系统（俱乐部商品）作为每个俱乐部的替代回收选项。我们的试验结果表明，与纯粹的公共物品框架相比，添加更多独家回收俱乐部选项可增加个人对回收的贡献。但是，这种合作的增加仅对那些具有较高环保态度的俱乐部聚集的俱乐部有意义。

图形摘要