Geographic Networks Matter for Pro-Environmental Waste Disposal Behavior in Rural China : Bayesian Estimation of a Spatial Probit Model

Pro-environmental waste disposal behavior plays a fundamental role in improving rural waste management and rural livability. Recent years have witnessed an increased social, political and academic interest in the influencing mechanism of pro-environmental waste disposal behavior. In particular, it is widely acknowledged that social networks can influence the behavior of others via sharing information and opinions. However, given the theory of behavioral contagion, it is believed that geographic networks provide channels to directly observe the behavior of others and to further adapt self-behavior even in the absence of social networks. Despite this fact, a systematic analysis of how geographic networks affect waste disposal behavior is still lacking. Therefore, this study distinguishes the roles of geographic and social networks in shaping behavior and investigates the impact of geographic networks on four types of waste disposal behavior (i.e., domestic waste sorting, agricultural waste disposal, sewage collection, and toilet retrofitting) by Bayesian estimation of a spatial autoregressive probit model. The empirical results confirm that geographic networks affect four types of waste disposal behavior in a significantly positive way, while the positive impact of social networks is only detected in the case of sewage collection and toilet retrofitting. Besides, based on our dataset, the effect of geographic networks does not decrease as the distance between observations increases. Furthermore, taking spatial heterogeneity into account, different waste disposal behavior types respond differently to household background characteristics and local socio-economic conditions. These findings have significant implications for policymakers to design and develop sustainable waste management systems in rural China