A Mixed Bag: The Hidden Time Costs of Regulating Consumer Behavior

Abstract

The non-monetary costs consumers experience from price and quantity regulations are challenging to quantify, and thus easily overlooked. Using quasi-experimental policy variation and high-frequency supermarket data, this paper identifies time costs of policies that ban and tax the use of disposable carryout bags (DCB). DCB policies cause persistent 3% increases in supermarket checkout duration. Moreover, DCB policies and their associated time costs disincentivize grocery shopping, with supermarkets in regulated jurisdictions experiencing a 1.6% reduction in sales. The results explicitly link time costs as a mechanism behind policy avoidance and highlight trade-offs between convenient and environmentally-friendly behaviors in healthy food acquisition.

Skipping the Bag: The Intended and Unintended Consequences of Disposable Bag Regulation

“…Second, the two policies have different revenue implications for the government: the tax raised an average of $6 million dollars in each of the first two years (Giangreco, 2019), while the ban generates no revenue at all. Finally, there may be other potential unintended consequences associated with the disposable bag regulations, such as increases in checkout wait times (Taylor, 2020a, 2020b) or losses in sales (Cabrera, Caffera, & Cid, 2020; Taylor, 2020).…”

Modest and incomplete incentives may work: Pricing plastic bags in Uruguay

“…Finally, Taylor (2019 and2020) goes beyond the evaluation of the impact of a ban on the quantity of disposable carryout bags used, providing the first contributions towards a full welfare evaluation of this policy. A ban or a price on single-use shopping bags may decrease external, collection and final disposal costs.…”

“…A ban or a price on single-use shopping bags may decrease external, collection and final disposal costs. Nevertheless, on the negative side, Taylor (2020) found that they might also increase the time customers spent at check out. Using observational and cashier scanner data from a supermarket chain, she found that the California ban on single-used plastic bags (coupled with a tax on paper and thicker, reusable plastic bags) increased 3.1% the checking out time at supermarkets.…”

“…Concentrations of micro-plastics affects hatching, feeding and fleeing behavior and growth of larval fish at relevant levels(Lönnstedt and Eklöv, 2016). 2 Three additional US studies evaluate the impact of a ban(Taylor and Villas-Boas, 2016;Taylor, 2019 and2020).…”

Consumer Behaviour of Generation Z in the Context of Dual Quality of Daily Consumption Products on EU market

“…Generation Z consumers are interesting and seem like a challenge to traders because they want to express themselves, often through shopping behaviour and buying. Similarly, Generation Z customers often encounter brands that support their self-perception or desired self [18]. They are more than brand saturated.…”