Environmental Law Awareness and Consumer’s Willingness to Pay for Green Products: A Study of Mumbai

Author

Riddhi More

Abstract

 Environmental laws in India aim to reduce plastic-waste, electronic-waste and pollution. But it is yet not known whether awareness about these regulations has any effect on consumer spending on green products. The study investigates the correlation between awareness of environmental regulations and willingness to pay additional cost on green products.

Data for the current study have been gathered through primary research with 100 respondents from Mumbai in form of an online survey. Respondents were selected by convenience sampling. There were three hypotheses that have been tested using chi-square test of independence and regression analysis to investigate the correlation between environmental regulation awareness, education level, income and willingness to pay

From the results of the study, it can be concluded that there is no statistically significant correlation between environmental regulations awareness and willingness to pay for green products. Education also shows only a weak relationship. Income is also not related significantly to willingness to pay. However, additional analysis reflects respondents who believe that environmental awareness influences their buying decisions shows a higher willingness to pay extra. This indicates that individual’s views on the impact of awareness may be different from their readiness to pay more.

It appears that merely creating awareness may not be sufficient to promote environmental consumption. Incentives in terms of prices and proper product information can assist consumers in making decisions for the benefit of the environment. But it is necessary to note that the study was constrained due to the non-random selection of a small sample. Thus, it does not establish causality but only identifies relationships among the variables.

Keywords

Willingness to pay (WTP), Environmental law awareness, Green product purchasing behavior, Mumbai consumer study, • Urban green consumer behavior

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References

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