Evaluation of Agri-environmental Policies
Selected Methodological Issues and Case Studies
Governments are increasingly aware of the importance of monitoring and evaluating their policies − including agri-environmental policies − and are devoting efforts to strengthening their monitoring and evaluation systems and capacities. They aim to improve their performance by establishing evidence-based policy-making, evidence-based management and evidence-based accountability, which will help to improve the design and implementation of policies. Have agri-environmental and agricultural policies, including cross-compliance and environmental regulations, succeeded in meeting environmental objectives for agriculture in OECD countries (and selected non-OECD countries)? What is the role for governments to encourage farmers to deliver environmental public goods? The report includes a selection papers presented at the OECD Workshop on Evaluation of Agri-environmental Policies, held 20-22 June 2011 in Braunschweig, Germany.
Econometric methods for estimating the additional effects of agri-environmental schemes on farmers' practices
Agri-environmental schemes (AESs) that remunerate farmers who volunteer to adopt practices that are more favourable to the environment are increasingly important policy measures in both the United States and the European Union. Cost-benefit evaluation of an AES requires estimates of the additional impact of the AES and of the extent of windfall effects. This chapter defines these notions and discusses the biases of naive ways of estimating them. We then present an overview of the econometric methods that can be used to estimate additional effects. We illustrate them with examples taken from original results on the evaluation of the French AES programme implemented between 2000 and 2006.