Can teaching children about the environment influence household behavior? Experiments in Swedish schools

Ek Claes, Magnus Söderberg and Mitesh Kataria ()
Additional contact information
Ek Claes: Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University, Postal: P.O. Box 640, SE 40530 GÖTEBORG, Sweden, https://www.gu.se/handelshogskolan/nationalekonomi-statistik
Mitesh Kataria: Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University, Postal: P.O. Box 640, SE 40530 GÖTEBORG, Sweden

No 848, Working Papers in Economics from University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics

Abstract: In two separate field experiments with Swedish school children aged 10-16, we evaluate variants of an Environmental Education Program designed to promote pro-environmental behavior; specifically, reduce household waste. We match the addresses of participating students with high-resolution administrative records on collected household waste. This allows us to estimate causal effects on the waste generated in households where a child was treated. Both experiments produce null effects on waste generation. In the second experiment, we are also able to estimate the effect of regular environmental education within the Swedish school curriculum, and find only weak evidence that this affects household waste.

Keywords: Field experiments; Environmental Education Programs; Household waste; Intergenerational learning (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D13 I21 Q53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 25 pages
Date: 2024-10-30, Revised 2024-11-14
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-env, nep-exp, nep-ltv and nep-res
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/2077/83917 Full text (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0848

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers in Economics from University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, Box 640, SE 405 30 GÖTEBORG, Sweden. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jessica Oscarsson ().