Location matters for pro-environmental behavior: a spatial Markov Chains approach to proximity effects in differentiated waste collection

We analyze data on differentiated waste collection (as a proxy of pro-environmental behaviors) in Italian provinces in the years 1999–2012. We make use of a Markov Spatial Transition approach to model the dynamic of local transitions among different levels of environmental pro-sociality, and we find that behaviors, and in particular differentiated waste collecting habits, tend to be strongly influenced by proximity effects, so that provinces with good levels of environmental pro-sociality may positively influence nearby ones, and vice versa for provinces with poor levels of environmental pro-sociality. We also show that in the long term separate clusters with markedly different levels of differentiated waste collection rates emerge.