Pro‑social behaviours, waste concern and recycling behaviour in Italy at the end of the 1990s

This paper examines both theoretically and empirically the link between pro-social behaviours, individual attitudes regarding waste prevention and disposal, and individual recycling behaviour in Italy at the end of the 1990s, in a period in which policy makers started to make the population aware of the importance of waste prevention, disposal and recycling. In the theoretical framework, following Czajkowski et al. (Environ Resour Econ 66:647–670, 2017), we develop a utility function that represents the individual level of satisfaction, which is influenced by certain aspects related to environmental quality. In the empirical analysis, using the 1998 wave of the multipurpose household survey (MHS) conducted by the Italian Central Statistical Office and probit models, we show a positive relationship between pro-social behaviours, waste concern and recycling behaviour that is robust to the inclusion of social capital variables.