The impact of alternative policies on livestock farmers' willingness to recycle manure: evidence from central China
China Agricultural Economic Review
ISSN: 1756-137X
Article publication date: 29 June 2020
Issue publication date: 22 September 2020
Abstract
Purpose
This article examines the impact of different policy instruments on livestock farmers' willingness to recycle manure. The results shed light on the optimal policy combination.
Design/methodology/approach
A game theoretical framework is constructed to illustrate farmers' optimal strategies under different policies. Theoretical results are empirically tested by survey data from beef cattle farmers in Central China.
Findings
Empirical results show that penalties work better than subsidies if each type of policy is implemented separately. The authors also find a positive interaction between subsidy and penalty policies, suggesting that a combination of subsidy and penalty policies produces the best outcome in incentivizing livestock farmers to recycle manure. Furthermore, planting and breeding simultaneously have the strongest effect on increasing livestock farmers' willingness to recycle manure, suggesting that the combination of planting and breeding can be an optimal strategy for manure management.
Originality/value
This study is based on firsthand survey data and provides new evidence on the effectiveness of alternative environmental policies on manure recycling.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Conflicts of interest: the authors declare no conflict of interest.The contributions of Qian Li and Yubin Wang are based on the work supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China (No. 18BJY133).
Citation
Li, Q., Wang, J., Wang, X. and Wang, Y. (2020), "The impact of alternative policies on livestock farmers' willingness to recycle manure: evidence from central China", China Agricultural Economic Review, Vol. 12 No. 4, pp. 583-594. https://doi.org/10.1108/CAER-09-2019-0158
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited