Open AccessDecentralisation of agri-environmental policy design
Author(s) -
François Bareille,
Matteo Zavalloni
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
european review of agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.4
H-Index - 60
eISSN - 1464-3618
pISSN - 0165-1587
DOI - 10.1093/erae/jbz049
Subject(s) - decentralization , public good , scope (computer science) , agency (philosophy) , agriculture , welfare , economics , homogeneous , payment , production (economics) , business , public economics , economic system , natural resource economics , microeconomics , market economy , geography , finance , mathematics , philosophy , archaeology , epistemology , combinatorics , computer science , programming language
We theoretically examine the gains of the decentralisation of agri-environmental policy design. We consider a model with homogeneous regions and joint production of local and global public goods from agriculture. Assuming that governments are characterised by different agency costs and knowledge of the PG values, we evaluate whether decentralisation is a suitable strategy to improve the efficiency of agri-environmental payments. We find that partial decentralisation always improves the welfare. We apply our theoretical model to the case of abandoned wetlands in Brittany. We find that national governments are the most suitable to design agri-environmental policies. Our results contribute to reflections on future Common Agricultural Policy.