A3 Policies and incentives towards eco-friendly farming (Mußhoff)

SP A3 analyzes how farmers in developing and high-income countries can be incentivized to adopt more environmentally-friendly production practices, in order to reduce SDG tradeoffs. Agricultural production activities are major sources of several environmental problems. For instance, the overuse of mineral fertilizer and livestock manure leads to nitrogen emissions and high nitrogen loads in the environment, with detrimental impacts on aquatic ecosystems and human health. To reduce nitrogen emissions from agriculture and related externalities, regulatory policies and behavioral changes are required. We will use behavioral economic approaches to analyze the effects of different types of policies on farmers’ attitudes and adoption of eco-friendly practices. Policies to be evaluated will include reward and penalty interventions as well as nudges to influence environmental attitudes and behavior.

Possible dissertation topics:

Links between external input use, farm management, profit, and climate change in Africa and Europe
Impact analysis of eco-friendly farm policies: Triangulating normative and experimental methods
Effectiveness of “soft” policy tools to foster the adoption of eco-friendly farming practices

Oliver Mußhoff

Luisa Müting