Reluctant Recyclers: Social Interaction in Responsibility Ascription

Kjell Arne Brekke, Gorm Kipperberg () and Karine Nyborg

No 16/2007, Memorandum from Oslo University, Department of Economics

Abstract: Several studies have demonstrated that individual contributions to public goods are increasing in others’ contributions. The underlying causes for this, however, are not yet fully understood. We present a model of duty-orientation in which moral responsibility is learned through observations of others’ behavior. Since, in our model, responsibility is a burden, we hypothesize that individuals will be reluctant to accept responsibility based on uncertain information. Econometric analysis of data from a survey on households’ glass recycling indicates that perceived responsibility is a major determinant for reported recycling; that responsibility ascription is influenced by beliefs about others’ behavior; and that people are indeed reluctant to accept responsibility based on uncertain information.

Keywords: Voluntary contributions; duty-orientation; recycling; joint FIML estimation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D11 D12 D64 Q53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38 pages
Date: 2009-02-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-res and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:osloec:2007_016

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