INFORMAL INSTITUTIONS AND COMPLIANCE: THE CASE OF HOUSEHOLD RECYCLING IN SINGAPORE AND SHANGHAI

Abstract

Environmentalism has begun to catchup with consumerism in people’s mentality as large cities complete the final stage of industrialization and urbanization. Household waste management, such as sorting and recycling, is considered to be the ultimate solution for waste reduction, efficient treatment, and resource recovery. Built on Weaver’s (2009) Theory of Target Compliance and the concept of the informal institutions in New Institutional Economics (NIE), this dissertation aims to explain the counterintuitive prevalence of non-compliance with household recycling programs in relatively affluent post-industrialized societies where people have high environmental awareness. A mix-method approach employing quantitative and qualitative methods was selected to provide validated interpretation. Different types of household recycling discourses in Singapore and Shanghai have been identified through Q Methodology, and the effects of critical institutional variables have been analyzed through multivariate regressions using primary data derived from surveys.