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Rural Policy Assumptions and Policy Failure: The Case of the Re‐establishment Grant
Author(s) -
Botterill Linda Courtenay
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
australian journal of public administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.524
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-8500
pISSN - 0313-6647
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8500.00237
Subject(s) - generosity , commonwealth , incentive , economics , public economics , agriculture , public administration , political science , microeconomics , law , ecology , biology
For 30 years successive Commonwealth governments have offered grants to encourage marginal farmers to quit farming. The grants have increased in generosity over time but there has only ever been a limited uptake of the program. This paper considers the assumptions policy‐makers have made about farmers’ behaviour in formulating these programs and compares these with sociological evidence about farmers’ incentive structures. This case study provides an example of how the failure to take account of a sufficiently broad range of values when formulating policy can undermine policy objectives from the outset.