eprintid: 10122433 rev_number: 14 eprint_status: archive userid: 608 dir: disk0/10/12/24/33 datestamp: 2021-02-25 16:37:50 lastmod: 2021-11-23 23:42:49 status_changed: 2021-02-25 16:37:50 type: article metadata_visibility: show creators_name: Piras, S creators_name: Pancotto, F creators_name: Righi, S creators_name: Vittuari, M creators_name: Setti, M title: Community social capital and status: The social dilemma of food waste ispublished: pub divisions: UCL divisions: B04 divisions: C05 divisions: F48 note: This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract: In developed countries, the largest share of food is wasted at the household level. Household food waste results from a complex interaction between economic factors, well-established routines, and social norms. To explain this interaction, we propose a simple model of waste behavior where the individual and social economic costs generated by wasting are counterbalanced by the security and status generated through acquiring excess food, thus causing a social dilemma. This trade-off is mediated by social capital, which measures the intensity with which each individual within a community evaluates the negative effects of waste. We test this model's hypotheses using a 2016 dataset of food behaviors and opinions of Italian households, which we merge with variables known to elicit the local level of social capital. We find individual food waste levels to be negatively related with social capital. Contrastingly, status concerns with respect to food and the lack of organizational abilities are both more prevalent in low social capital areas, and are related to increased food waste. This relationship is mediated by income. date: 2021-05 date_type: published publisher: Elsevier BV official_url: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.106954 oa_status: green full_text_type: pub language: eng primo: open primo_central: open_green verified: verified_manual elements_id: 1849013 doi: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.106954 lyricists_name: Righi, Simone lyricists_id: SRIGH29 actors_name: Righi, Simone actors_id: SRIGH29 actors_role: owner full_text_status: public publication: Ecological Economics volume: 183 article_number: 106954 issn: 0921-8009 citation: Piras, S; Pancotto, F; Righi, S; Vittuari, M; Setti, M; (2021) Community social capital and status: The social dilemma of food waste. Ecological Economics , 183 , Article 106954. 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.106954 <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.106954>. Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10122433/1/1-s2.0-S0921800921000124-main%20%282%29.pdf