Conference Agenda
Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).
Please note that all times are shown in the time zone of the conference. The current conference time is: 24th Aug 2026, 01:51:13am WEST
External resources will be made available 30 min before a session starts. You may have to reload the page to access the resources.
|
Daily Overview |
| Session | |
|
Circular Economy 1 Location: B004 Session Chair: Aude Pommeret, IREGE USMB | |
    | |
The Economics of Weak Circularity: Why Recycling Crowds Out Reuse 1: Aarhus University, Denmark; 2: Technical University of Denmark, Denmark We study reuse, recycling, and disposal decisions in a model of end-of-use product allocation. Markets over-rely on recycling because consumers systematically under-value reused goods due to behavioral frictions that depress willingness to pay beyond objective quality differences, while firms fail to internalize the environmental benefits of extending product lifetimes. As a result, recycling substitutes for socially efficient reuse, generating a weak circularity gap—a distortion in the composition of circularity whereby material recovery crowds out product longevity. We show that policies focused solely on recycling can increase total circularity while widening this gap. Endogenous product quality choices amplify weak circularity by expanding the set of goods for which reuse is privately unattractive despite being socially beneficial. We illustrate these mechanisms through simulations motivated by the clothing sector, showing how the prevalence of short-lived, low-quality (fast-fashion-type) products magnifies weak circularity and its associated welfare losses. | |