Nuclear Waste in My Backyard: Social Acceptance and Economic Incentives

Electricity prices and preferences for climate and energy policy

Working paperPublikation

Bonev, P., Söderberg, M., & Vesterberg, M.

Publiceringsår

2025

Publicerat i

Griffith University Working papers.

Sammanfattning

We analyse the impact of high electricity prices on individual preferences and attitudes toward climate and energy policy in Sweden. Our identification strategy leverages key features of the data and study design. First, consumers are distributed across four electricity price areas, each characterized by varying and often divergent electricity prices. Second, surveys were conducted in four distinct waves. Notably, between the second and third waves, electricity prices were nearly identical across price areas, whereas after the third wave, significant price differences emerged. Using multiple estimators that exploit these features, we find that higher electricity prices: (1) reduce acceptance of a carbon tax, (2) increase support for nuclear power, (3) diminish concerns about climate change, and (4) have no significant impact on other political attitudes or food consumption preferences.

Working Paper No. 381: How social norm feedback can reduce unsorted waste and increase recycling in the residential sector

Working paperPublikation

Ek, C., & Söderberg, M.

Ladda ner

Publiceringsår

2024

Publicerat i

Ratio Working Paper No Series.

Sammanfattning

The EU waste legislation requires member states to prepare 55% of municipal waste for re-use and recycling, to recycle 65% of all packaging waste by 2025, and to limit landfilling municipal waste to 10% by 2035. A large majority of the member states are at risk of missing one or more of these targets. Thus, there is a need to identify additional policies beyond command-and-control and market-based instruments that can effectively contribute to these targets. This policy brief describes one such policy: social norms feedback. This has been trialled with nearly 20,000 households in Sweden that faced Pay-as-you-throw schemes. In this setting, the unsorted waste fraction was reduced by around 10% and three quarters of that was due to increased recycling. The large trial sample and wide-ranging socio-economic characteristics suggests that 10-20% reduction of unsorted waste can be expected in jurisdictions with flat tariffs. If local governments collaborate and share the cost of waste truck equipment, then the policy is likely to generate a substantial economic surplus.

Norm-based feedback on household waste: Large-scale field experiments in two Swedish municipalities

Artikel (med peer review)Publikation

Ek, C. & Söderberg, M.

Ladda ner

Publiceringsår

2024

Publicerat i

Journal of Public Economics

Sammanfattning

We conduct two large-scale randomized controlled trials to produce the first evidence that Home Energy Report-type norm feedback letters can be used to reduce household waste. We explore several feedback variants, including a novel short-run dynamic norm that emphasizes ongoing changes in waste behavior. Waste reductions are on the order of 7%–12% for all treatments, substantially larger than usually found in the energy or water domains. Effects are mostly driven by increased recycling of packaging and remain largely intact a year after the intervention ended. Feedback is highly cost effective compared to alternative non-price waste policies. However, net social benefits depend on household preferences for receiving feedback, which we elicit in a valuation survey, and whether existing waste fees internalize the marginal social cost of waste.

Sammanfattning

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