Using Choice Experiments to Investigate the Policy Relevance of Heterogeneity in Farmer Agri-Environmental Contract Preferences
Using Choice Experiments to Investigate the Policy Relevance of Heterogeneity in Farmer Agri-Environmental Contract Preferences
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DOI：
10.1007/s10640-011-9512-8
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发表时间：
2012-04
影响因子：
5.9
通讯作者：
S. W. Broch;S. Vedel
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
S. W. Broch;S. Vedel
农业环境合同用于激励私人土地的自然管理，例如欧洲联盟。本文的目的是调查农民对农业环境契约的偏好异质性，以便讨论利用异质性的潜在政策改进。我们使用选择实验来引出农民对造林合同的陈述偏好。调查了四个属性：造林目的、解除合同的选择、监测和补偿水平。所有这些特征都表明农民和政府之间存在潜在的利益冲突，这就强调了如何处理这些利益的重要性。随机参数logit模型表明，拥有取消合同的选择权降低了农民所需的补偿水平，而监测则增加了农民所需的补偿水平。此外，农民愿意接受较低的补偿，当其目的是保护生物多样性和地下水相对于娱乐。具有类概率变量的潜在类模型揭示了离散的异质性，并支持分为四个具有不同偏好的群体。例如，一群已经拥有森林的农民认为取消合同的选择并不重要，而另一群依靠农场获得收入的人则需要更高的补偿。研究结果表明，以合同为目标可以提高效率。
Agri-environmental contracts are used to provide incentives for nature management on private land in, e.g. the European Union. The aim of this article is to investigate preference heterogeneity for agri-environmental contracts among farmers in order to discuss potential policy improvements utilising heterogeneity. We used a choice experiment to elicit farmers’ stated preferences for afforestation contracts. Four attributes are investigated: purpose of afforestation, option of cancelling the contract, monitoring, and compensation level. All attributes present a potential conflict between farmers’ and authorities’ interests, which emphasises the importance of knowing how to handle these interests. A random parameter logit model shows that having the option to cancel the contract decreases farmers’ required compensation level and monitoring increases it. Furthermore, farmers are willing to accept a lower compensation when the aim is to protect biodiversity and ground water relative to recreation. Latent class models with class probability variables reveal discrete heterogeneity and support a division into four groups with divergent preferences. For example, a group of farmers who already have forest areas does not find the option of cancelling the contract important, whereas another group relying on the farm for income requires higher compensation. The findings indicate potential for efficiency gains from targeting the contracts.