ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the environmental behaviors associated with littering. One might expect that economists would have already explored this phenomenon, as the decisions on whether or not to litter may be related to literature on the economics of crime that is based on the costs of littering and the costs of avoiding littering. The negative externalities of a littered environment could also have attracted economists’ attention before now. However, the reality is somewhat different. Despite recognition of littering in public places as a major public health and safety hazard through such effects as water pollution, fire hazards, rodent and insect infestations, highway accidents, injuries suffered from discarded cans and broken bottles, and also as diminishing the aesthetic appearance of public places (Cialdini et al. 1990, Ackerman 1997), few studies have addressed this issue. As an example, a search for “littering” in the key economics database ECONLIT returns only eight hits. If we search for “litter” we obtain only 36 results.1 A better understanding of why people litter or whether people think that littering is justifiable would be quite valuable.
