Price Pass-Through of Austria's Single-Use Plastics Producer Charges: Evidence from Retail Offer Spells

Abstract

Single use plastics (SUPs) impose substantial environmental costs. Following Directive (EU) 2019/904, Austria introduced producer charges and mandatory participation in collection and recycling systems. This paper exploits a monthly panel of retail offer spells drawn from a price comparison platform to estimate the extent to which compliance costs pass through to posted online prices in Austria. The treated sample comprises keyword matched SUP products including balloons, to go cups, wet wipes, plastic bags, food containers, tobacco filter items, beverage bottles, and plastic wraps observed alongside a control group of non SUP listings over 2020-2024. A two way fixed effects (TWFE) specification places the average post treatment price increase at approximately 4.1 percent. A sequential TWFE model separating the administrative reporting phase from March 2023 and the payment due phase from March 2024 reveals that the larger adjustment occurred during the earlier reporting stage, with a reporting only effect of approximately 8.1 percent and an incremental payment phase effect of 5.6 percent. For balloons, a category subject to pronounced regulatory fee exposure, event study estimates exceed 50 percent immediately following the initial payment date and remain elevated throughout most of the post treatment window. These findings indicate that Austrian online retailers adjusted prices in advance of fee payment deadlines, consistent with anticipatory pass through of expected compliance costs rather than a discrete response to realized payments. As the data contain price observations but not quantity data, the analysis speaks to price incidence and not to consumption or environmental outcomes.