Small Incentives Matter: promoting waste recycling among household solid waste generators

Authors

  • Rafael Sales Rios Universidade de Brasília
  • Benjamin Miranda Tabak Universidade Católica de Brasília

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18836/2178-0587/ealr.v5n1p118-137

Abstract

The negative impacts of inappropriate accumulation of urban solid waste is a public health and environmental issue. The problem is an issue about the preservation of social and economic order, too. With the sanction of the Solid Waste National Policy in 2010, recycling has become a well-defined political objective at all levels of government. This paper presents a behavioral experiment simulating a legal provision of the policy on individuals and the results obtained. The methodology is inspired by current scientific “Law and Economics”, which proposes to prepare a prognosis about the consequences of human behavior from a set of laws and what it encourages, and “Behavioral Economics”, which seeks to examine the behavior of economic agents in the presence of aspects that skew their decision making. This paper presents an outline of a field experiment involving donors batteries targets of an incentive policy (with a small monetary reward) in return for greater effort in generating the positive externalities.

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Author Biographies

Rafael Sales Rios, Universidade de Brasília

Professor da Faculdade de Gestão de Políticas Públicas da Universidade de Brasília (UnB), doutorando em Economia pela Universidade de Brasília e bolsista da Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES). Atuou como analista na Secretaria de Acompanhamento Econômico do Ministério da Fazenda (SEAE/MF). É economista formado pela Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA) e mestre em Direito, como bolsista da CAPES, pela Universidade Católica de Brasília (UCB), especializando-se em Análise Econômica do Direito. Tem experiência em economia, com ênfase em Advocacia da Concorrência; Análise Econômica do Direito; Economia Comportamental e Economia do Meio Ambiente. 

Benjamin Miranda Tabak, Universidade Católica de Brasília

Possui graduação em Economia pela Universidade Federal de Uberlândia (1994), mestrado em Economia pela Universidade Federal Fluminense (1997) e doutorado em Economia pela Universidade de Brasília (2000). Atualmente é pesquisador Banco Central do Brasil e professor da Universidade Católica de Brasília. Tem experiência na área de Economia, com ênfase em Teoria Monetária e Financeira, atuando principalmente nos seguintes temas: análise econômica do direito, economia experimental, economia bancária e finanças.É editor associado do Journal of Banking and Finance, Revista Brasileira de Finanças, Quantitative Finance Letters, dentre outras.

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Published

2014-06-01

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 1 (2014): Economic Analysis of Law Review

Section

Papers

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