Determinants of farmers’ willingness to participate in subsidy schemes for pesticide-free buffer zones—A choice experiment study

Danish farmers have been far less interested in agri-environmental subsidy schemes (AES) than anticipated. In order to examine how to improve the appeal of such schemes, a choice experiment was conducted concerning 444 Danish farmers’ preferences for subsidy schemes for pesticide-free buffer zones. A random parameter logit framework was used to capture heterogeneity among farmers. Our results indicate that 1) the vast majority of farmers are willing to trade off the size of the subsidy for less restrictive scheme requirements and that 2) the amount of the subsidy they are willing to trade off varies with specific scheme requirements, suggesting which features are most important for successful policy design. Our results suggest that farmers value flexible contract terms higher than reduced administrative burdens. Finally, we suggest a practical approach to estimating a monetary value of farmers’ reluctance to participate in AES. While the trade off's that farmers are willing to make between subsidy size and individual scheme requirements are case specific, our results concerning increased use of farm advisors, farmers ability of valuing different types of flexibility, and our attempt to place a monetary value on farmers’ reluctance to engage in regulatory subsidy schemes have a potentially broader application platform.     

Provided and perceived status quo in choice experiments: Implications for valuing the outputs of multifunctional rural areas

This article presents a choice experiment analyzing multifunctional rural development policies targeting conservation and recovery of environmental, social and cultural assets. In choice experiments a base alternative is usually included in order to estimate the welfare change associated to policy proposals. This study is concerned with the much neglected issue of the impact on policy analysis of the definition of a ‘status quo’ alternative either as an objective assessment by experts, or as a self-reported perception by respondents. Convergent validity analysis and prospective policy scenarios show a significant impact of different status quo specifications on individuals' preferences and related welfare measures when complex and unfamiliar biophysical systems are involved in policy analysis and evaluation.     

Valuing environmental and health risk in agriculture: A choice experiment approach to pesticides in Italy

The widespread use of pesticides in agriculture shows a complex ramification of multiple negative externalities, ranging from food safety-related effects to the deterioration of farmland ecosystems. Recent research has demonstrated that the assessment of the economic implications of such negative processes is fraught with many uncertainties. This paper presents the results of an empirical study recently conducted in Northern Italy aimed at estimating the economic value of reducing the wide-ranging impacts of pesticide use, by deploying a Choice Experiment approach. The experimental design provides a meaningful tool to assign monetary values to the negative environmental effects associated with agrochemicals use. In this connection, the paper addresses in particular the reduction of farmland biodiversity, groundwater contamination and harm to human health. The resulting estimates confirm that, on average, respondents demonstrate a substantial willingness-to-pay a premium for agricultural goods (in particular, foodstuffs) produced in environmentally-benign ways.     

The internalization of externalities in the production of electricity: Willingness to pay for the attributes of a policy for renewable energy

This paper investigates the willingness to pay of a sample of residents of Bath, England, for a hypothetical program that promotes the production of renewable energy. Using choice experiments, we assess the preferences of respondents for a policy for the promotion of renewable energy that: (i) contributes to the internalization of the external costs caused by fossil fuel technologies; (ii) affects the short-term security of energy supply; (iii) has an impact on the employment in the energy sector; and (iv) leads to an increase in the electricity bill. Responses to the choice questions show that our respondents are in favour of a policy for renewable energy and that they attach a high value to a policy that brings private and public benefits in terms of climate change and energy security benefits. Our results therefore suggest that consumers are willing to pay a higher price for electricity in order to internalize the external costs in terms of energy security, climate change and air pollution caused by the production of electricity.     

Taking stock: A comparative analysis of payments for environmental services programs in developed and developing countries

Payments for environmental services (PES) are an innovative approach to conservation that has been applied increasingly often in both developed and developing countries. To date, however, few efforts have been made to systematically compare PES experiences. Drawing on the wealth of case studies in this Special Issue, we synthesize the information presented, according to case characteristics with respect to design, costs, environmental effectiveness, and other outcomes. PES programs often differ substantially one from the other. Some of the differences reflect adaptation of the basic concept to very different ecological, socioeconomic, or institutional conditions; others reflect poor design, due either to mistakes or to the need to accommodate political pressures. We find significant differences between user-financed PES programs, in which funding comes from the users of the ES being provided, and government-financed programs, in which funding comes from a third party. The user-financed programs in our sample were better targeted, more closely tailored to local conditions and needs, had better monitoring and a greater willingness to enforce conditionality, and had far fewer confounding side objectives than government-financed programs. We finish by outlining some perspectives on how both user- and government-financed PES programs could be made more effective and cost-efficient.     

Designing payments for environmental services in theory and practice: An overview of the issues

Payments for environmental services (PES) have attracted increasing interest as a mechanism to translate external, non-market values of the environment into real financial incentives for local actors to provide environmental services (ES). In this introductory paper, we set the stage for the rest of this Special Issue of Ecological Economics by reviewing the main issues arising in PES design and implementation and discussing these in the light of environmental economics. We start with a discussion of PES definition and scope. We proceed to review some of the principal dimensions and design characteristics of PES programs and then analyze how PES compares to alternative policy instruments. Finally, we examine in detail two important aspects of PES programs: their effectiveness and their distributional implications.PES is not a silver bullet that can be used to address any environmental problem, but a tool tailored to address a specific set of problems: those in which ecosystems are mismanaged because many of their benefits are externalities from the perspective of ecosystem managers. PES is based on the beneficiary-pays rather than the polluter-pays principle, and as such is attractive in settings where ES providers are poor, marginalized landholders or powerful groups of actors. An important distinction within PES is between user-financed PES in which the buyers are the users of the ES, and government-financed PES in which the buyers are others (typically the government) acting on behalf of ES users. In practice, PES programs differ in the type and scale of ES demand, the payment source, the type of activity paid for, the performance measure used, as well as the payment mode and amount. The effectiveness and efficiency of PES depends crucially on program design.     

The effect of individual ‘ability to choose’ (scale heterogeneity) on the valuation of environmental goods

Environmental valuation methods, such as choice experiments, are increasingly being used to value complex and often unfamiliar environmental goods. A potential risk is that some survey respondents may not be capable of developing and expressing preferences for such goods. The noise from these individuals may then conceal the well-defined preferences of other respondents and affect valuation estimates. We address this problem by estimating a range of models that accounts for scale heterogeneity (which we interpret as a respondent's ability to choose: ATC) and taste heterogeneity. These models are applied to two case studies: amenity from coastal defence and biodiversity. In both case studies, model fit was improved in a scale-heterogeneity multinomial-logit (S-MNL) model (compared to a standard MNL model) suggesting the accounting for ATC (scale heterogeneity) improved preference revelation. A mixed multinomial-logit (MIXL) model outperformed the S-MNL model suggesting that accounting for taste heterogeneity was also important. However, a generalised multinomial-logit (G-MNL) model improved model fit over the MIXL model only for the biodiversity data suggesting that for these data both taste heterogeneity and ATC were important. We conclude that accounting for ATC can improve the reliability and robustness of the results when valuing complex or unfamiliar environmental goods.     

A GIS-based approach for mapping direct use value of ecosystem services at a county scale: Management implications

A GIS-based approach was designed to spatially estimate direct use value of ecosystem services and to map results for a case study at county scale. The approach highlights the use of GIS to collect data, perform spatial analysis, and map economic values of ecosystem services. Three key steps of spatial valuation for agricultural products, forest products, and tourism services were illustrated in the GIS-based technical framework. We applied this approach to the Tiantai County (1423.8 km²) in Zhejiang province of southeast China. Selected components of natural products and tourism services in the case area were mapped as data layers in GIS, with each layer containing monetary values for every 25 m cell. The total direct use value of ecosystem services was estimated in RMB to be approximately 538 million Yuan in 2005 (Chinese currency, 8.2 Yuan = US$1), of which agricultural products, forest products and tourism services accounted for 65%, 30% and 5%, respectively. The critical areas for management purpose were identified depending on the heterogeneity of direct use services learned from the case study. The spatially explicit measures provide a mechanism for incorporating spatial context into ecosystem services evaluation. Based on the present GIS-based approach and case study, the suggestions and implications for local resources protection and eco-environmental management were extensively discussed. The work was expected to highlight research avenues to advance the ecosystem services framework as an operational basis for regional ecosystem-based management.     

Forest and water: The value of native temperate forests in supplying water for human consumption: A comment

In a recent paper in this journal Nuñez et al. [Nuñez, D., L. Nahuelhual, and C. Oyarzun, 2005. Forest and water: the value of native temperate forests in supplying water for human consumption. Ecological Economics 58: 606-616] presented a model to estimate the economic value of Chilean temperate forests in their function to contribute to maintain fresh water supply. We discuss and correct the estimated values of ecosystem services per household and per hectare.     

Socioeconomic predictors of forest use values in the Peruvian Amazon: A potential tool for biodiversity conservation

Conservation is a crisis discipline requiring rapid action with limited funds. This study examines the potential of socioeconomic variables to predict forest use values. If natural resource use can be predicted from socioeconomic data, conservation planners could rapidly identify and focus conservation programs on the sectors of local populations that most intensively utilize local flora and fauna. Families in three communities in the northern Peruvian Amazon were surveyed over a 6-month period. Data were collected on use of flora and fauna from six locally determined use categories (food, medicine and poisons, wood, weavings, adornments, and “other”) in forest types of three age classes (fallow fields—very young forests, young secondary forests, and old secondary forests). Forest use values were the dependant variables calculated in $/ha/year. Socioeconomic variables included: age, education, family size, residence time, land worked, land owned, number of fishing nets, chickens, pigs, cows, and/or mules owned (all proxies for productive assets), and level of ecological knowledge (ability of informants to correctly identify forest species and answer basic questions about their biology). Ordinary least square multiple regressions were run independently for each forest type. Regressions were also run separately for the two most valuable use categories, food and wood. Low R² adjusted values (all < 0.3) reflect the difficulty in predicting human behavior due to confounding variables and complex interactions. Residence time and a household's community of residence were the most significant predictors of forest use values. Households in Vista Alegre, the community with the highest density of people and smallest landholdings per household, extracted the highest value of forest products per hectare. The longer a family stayed in any community the higher the value of forest goods they extracted. If families that lived in an area longest are the most intensive extractors of forest products, they should be a major focus for conservation programming. In addition, the higher value of products extracted from forests by some families may make them more open to strategies seeking to protect long-term viability of the resources they utilize. The importance of residence time also indicates that planners need to account for changes in the resource use patterns of stakeholders over time.     

From mode choice to modal diversion: A new behavioural paradigm and an application to the study of the demand for innovative transport services

We analyse past research efforts that focus on modal diversion in the transport sector, as opposed to the classical mode choice concept, showing the added value of this alternative framework that emerges from the existing scientific literature. The modal diversion paradigm is then used to assess the relative importance of the technical performances of transport services on one hand and of the subjective factors of its potential users on the other, when forecasting the use of a new means among a group of white-collars working in a French research institute. We quantitatively show that multimodal habits and cognitive attitudes have an importance that is in general not negligible for this group, compared to that of the transport services performances, even if only these latter are routinely considered by engineers and planners. Beyond this, we find that the role of self-related factors further increased when the group was less familiar with the technological background and the subsequent operation of the new system, such as in the case of demand responsive transport services.     

A science-driven market-based instrument for determining the cost of environmental services: A comparison of two catchments in Australia

An auction-based approach (or MBI for “market-based instrument”) was used to purchase environmental services from landowners and to establish a long-term economic resource (forest plantations) in two catchments in the state of Victoria (Australia). The policy goal of the MBI was to encourage the conversion of cleared land to forest plantations. It was desired to achieve this while also reducing the amount of land affected by dryland salinity with minimum impact on water available for irrigation. Operationally, interested landowners identified areas on which they would be willing to establish forest plantations, and stated the amount of money they would require from the government to undertake plantation establishment; this constituted a landowner bid. The proposed planting area associated with each bid was processed through a quantitative hydrological model to estimate off-site impacts on dryland salinity and the change in water yield resulting from the conversion of individual non-forested areas to forest plantations. Landowner bids were then accepted or not based on the economic trade-offs among dollars requested by a landowner, reduction in water yield, and decrease in dryland salinity. To enable a comparison of costs, the MBI was independently trialled in two catchments. For both, the cost to government of a hectare of plantation and/or a hectare of salinity benefit was calculated a number of ways. Assuming the existence of a calibrated hydrological model, costs associated with distributing money via such an MBI were publicity, fieldwork, processing the bids through the model, probity, legal, and administration. In the Gippsland catchment, the total cost to establish forest plantations was $5340 per ha whereas it was $1635 per ha in the Corangamite catchment. No salinity benefit was obtained in Gippsland, but in Corangamite, if considered in isolation of the economic forest plantation benefit, the cost per hectare of salinity benefit was $5020.Operational aspects of the MBI are presented and discussed and a comparison is made to the expected costs of a conventional, non-science driven approach to landowner incentives.     

流域生态补偿的支付意愿及影响因素——以南水北调中线工程受水区郑州市为例

基于支付卡式(PC)条件价值法(CVM)对南水北调中线工程受水区郑州市进行问卷调查,利用Tobit模型考察了受水区居民使用南水北调中线工程水源区水质和水量生态服务的支付意愿(WTP)。结果表明:在302个有效样本中,受水区居民具有正支付意愿的比例为84.44%,其中89.8%的居民支付意愿值为10元/月及以下。根据两类WTP评估方法得出的郑州市居民支付意愿为5~8.09元/月。居民异质性是支付意愿的重要影响因素,收入水平、教育水平、年龄和偏好的影响显著;从居民对水源产权的认知看,受访者默认拥有清洁水源使用权,支付意愿决策具有较强的自利动机;从居民支付意愿决策背景看,水量和水质变化影响了居民的效用水平,从而改变了居民参与流域生态补偿的支付意愿。应建立生态服务使用方直接参与的流域生态补偿机制,根据受水区居民真实支付意愿对水源区进行生态补偿。     

A study of benefits compensation mechanism for agricultural water rights trading under the restriction of ecological reconstruction: case study of Shiyang River basin

Agricultural water allocation system based on priority rights has caused regional conJtiets and downstream ecological degradation.It is the urgent need to introduce the concept of the initial water rights and establish benefits compensation mechanism to resolve such problems.This paper takes the Shivang River basin as an example to calculate the opportunity cost of 0.97×108m3 of agricultural water encroached by the middle reach based on initial water right allocation system under which water is allocated in accordance with the ratio between agricultural population of two different regions concerning the downstream ecological reconstruction needs with Bio-economic model (BEM).The results suggest that the total economic loss of Minqin County for ecological econstruction amounts to 2.57×108 yuan,of which 1.68×108 yuan is ecological compensation,representing the economic loss Minqin suffered for ecological reconstruction which should burden beneficial groups of eeological reconstruction and 0.89×108 yuan is the economic loss Minqin suffered due to Liangzhou's encroachment behavior which should be compensated by Liangzhou.     

生态功能区域农田生态补偿的农户受偿意愿分析——以湖北省麻城市为例

以湖北省麻城市为实证,基于农户的受偿意愿,综合考虑环境友好型农业生产的机会成本损失,确定出农田生态补偿额度,在此基础上,通过Tobit模型检验影响农户受偿意愿的相关因素,结果显示:1在对保护性耕作有经济补偿的前提下,分别有84%和70.67%的受访农户愿意减少化肥和农药施用量;2随着化肥、农药的减少比例从10%增加到50%,农户的受偿额度分别由1 125元/hm2·年、3 600元/hm2·年增加到7 250元/hm2·年、9 815元/hm2·年,农户的机会成本分别由688元/hm2·年、2 808元/hm2·年增加到6 298元/hm2·年、9 321元/hm2·年,且在同等减少比例下,农户对农药减少的机会成本和受偿额度都要大于化肥减少的机会成本和受偿额度;3家庭农业收入占比、对农田生态环境的认知和改善农田生态环境期望指数对农户减少化肥施用受偿额度有正向显著影响,而年龄和家庭年现金收入有负向显著影响;受教育程度、距离城镇的远近和改善农田生态环境期望指数对农户减少农药施用受偿额度有正向显著影响,而家庭年现金收入有负向显著影响。     

中国区域经济收敛的空间计量分析——基于长三角1993-2006年132个县市区的实证研究

文章运用空间统计与空间计量的分析方法,根据长三角132个县市区的统计数据,进行了区域经济增长收敛性的实证研究,结果发现长三角132个县市区经济增长存在着显著的空间依赖性或空间自相关特征,因而若采用标准的β收敛方程会使得估计结果出现有偏与不一致;而若采用考虑了空间依赖性或空间自相关因素的模型进行估计,则其结果显示,虽然长三角县市区经济增长的收敛方向并没有改变,但是其经济收敛的速度却明显下降,且在统计上显著.这一发现不仅证实了新古典增长模型所反映的增长机制仍然决定着长三角经济增长的基本面,新经济增长因素只是减弱了长三角地区经济收敛的趋势,并没有从根本上改变经济增长收敛的方向;而且从更小空间单元测度的层面刻画了长三角经济增长的空间依赖性特征.