Determinants of the perceived administrative transaction costs caused by the uptake of an agri-environmental program. Issue 10 (24th August 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Mack, Gabriele; Kohler, Andreas; Heitkämper, Katja; El-Benni, Nadja
• Is Part Of: Journal of environmental planning and management. Volume 62:Issue 10(2019)
• Page Start: 1802
• Page End: 1819
• Publication Date: 2019-08-24
• Subjects: Transaction costs -- workload -- agri-environmental program -- administrative work; City planning -- Periodicals; City planning -- Great Britain -- Periodicals; Regional planning -- Periodicals; Regional planning -- Great Britain -- Periodicals; 333.7
• DOI: 10.1080/09640568.2018.1515311
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0964-0568

Abstract

Abstract : Farmers' subjectively perceived that administrative transaction costs are of high importance for the uptake of agri-environmental programs with direct effects on the effectiveness and efficiency of these programs and the well-being of farmers. This paper empirically estimates private administrative transaction costs resulting from an uptake of the newly introduced grassland-based milk and meat program in Switzerland, based on farmers' perceived administrative workload. Using ordered logit models, we analyze how the administrative tasks and farm and farmer characteristics influence the perceived administrative workload. We find that the time spent on monitoring or inspection tasks has no effect. In contrast, an outsourcing of program-related administrative tasks significantly reduces the perceived administrative workload. We also find that a better understanding of agricultural policy regulations significantly reduces the farmers' perceived administrative workload. We recommend that public administration improve the communication of agricultural policy regulations, rather than investing in the simplification of administrative forms.