TY - JOUR

T1 - Optimising the effect of policy instruments

T2 - a study of farmers' decision rationales and how they match the incentives in Danish pesticide policy

AU - Pedersen, Anders Branth

AU - Nielsen, Helle Ørsted

AU - Christensen, Tove

AU - Hasler, Berit

N1 - Published online: 23 Feb 2012

PY - 2012

Y1 - 2012

N2 - Economic modelling generally assumes that businesses are profit maximisers. However, behavioural economics holds that businesses pursue multiple objectives and may even sacrifice some profit. This has implications for the effectiveness of incentive-based environmental policies. Using Danish farmers as a case, this paper examines whether non-economic rationales may trump economic ones in farmer decisions, and, unlike previous research, we quantify how widespread non-economic values are compared to more economic values. Data derive from a survey (1164 responses) of Danish conventional farmers' decision rationales regarding their use of pesticides. Using cluster analysis, we show that some farmers are more economically motivated while other farmers are more focused on optimising yield and pay less attention to expenditures and crop prices. Furthermore, we find that the two groups differ in their response to policy instruments; farmers who focus on yield indicate less responsiveness to economic policy instruments. The results imply that it is important to implement a broad array of policy instruments to match different farmer rationales.

AB - Economic modelling generally assumes that businesses are profit maximisers. However, behavioural economics holds that businesses pursue multiple objectives and may even sacrifice some profit. This has implications for the effectiveness of incentive-based environmental policies. Using Danish farmers as a case, this paper examines whether non-economic rationales may trump economic ones in farmer decisions, and, unlike previous research, we quantify how widespread non-economic values are compared to more economic values. Data derive from a survey (1164 responses) of Danish conventional farmers' decision rationales regarding their use of pesticides. Using cluster analysis, we show that some farmers are more economically motivated while other farmers are more focused on optimising yield and pay less attention to expenditures and crop prices. Furthermore, we find that the two groups differ in their response to policy instruments; farmers who focus on yield indicate less responsiveness to economic policy instruments. The results imply that it is important to implement a broad array of policy instruments to match different farmer rationales.

U2 - 10.1080/09640568.2011.636568

DO - 10.1080/09640568.2011.636568

M3 - Journal article

VL - 55

SP - 1094

EP - 1110

JO - Journal of Environmental Planning and Management

JF - Journal of Environmental Planning and Management

SN - 0964-0568

IS - 8

ER -