Bans versus Fees: Disposable Carryout Bag Policies and Bag Usage

Rebecca Taylor and Sofia Villas-Boas

No 204783, 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California from Agricultural and Applied Economics Association

Abstract: Using observational data on consumer carryout bag usage, we measure the effects of Disposable Bag Policies on bag demand. Our results show that plastic bag bans with paper bag fees eliminate use of disposable plastic bags and increase use of reusable bags. However, we find significant and undesired increases in paper bag demand. We compare our results to a study on bag fees and conclude the types of bags stores choose to sell in lieu of disposable plastic bags, as well as the price of alternatives, impact whether bans are more successful than fees in discouraging disposable bag demand.

Keywords: Consumer/Household Economics; Demand and Price Analysis; Public Economics; Resource/Energy Economics and Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 31
Date: 2015
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:aaea15:204783

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.204783

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