Effects of environmental policy on consumption: lessons from the Chinese plastic bag regulation

To reduce plastic bag litter, China introduced a nationwide regulation requiring all retailers to charge for plastic shopping bags on 1 June 2008. By using the policy implementation as a natural experiment and collecting individual-level data before and after the implementation, we investigate the i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environment and development economics 2012-08, Vol.17 (4), p.407-431
Main Author: He, Haoran
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Binomials
China (People's Republic)
Commercial regulation
Consumer economics
Consumer groups
Consumers
Consumption
Economic development
Economic models
Economic regulation
Economic theory
Economics and Business
Ekonomi och näringsliv
Environmental economics
Environmental effects
Environmental policy
Environmental regulation
Environmental regulations
levy
Plastic bags
Plastics
pollution-control
Questionnaires
Regulation
Retail stores
Shopping
Shopping bags
Socioeconomic status
solid-waste
south-africa
Studies
Supermarkets
Taxation
THEORY AND APPLICATIONS
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Summary:To reduce plastic bag litter, China introduced a nationwide regulation requiring all retailers to charge for plastic shopping bags on 1 June 2008. By using the policy implementation as a natural experiment and collecting individual-level data before and after the implementation, we investigate the impacts of the regulation on consumers’ bag use. We find that the regulation implementation caused a 49 per cent reduction in the use of new bags. Besides regulation enforcement, consumers’ attitude toward the regulation and some consumers’ socioeconomic characteristics also affected bag consumption. However, the regulation effects differ largely among consumer groups and among regions and shopping occasions.
ISSN:1355-770X
1469-4395
DOI:10.1017/S1355770X1200006X