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December 11th, 2017

Adoption of mitigation practices in agriculture: an application of the option-value theory
Camille Tévenart

Abstract:

Uncertainty about new farming practices is considered in the literature as a key barrier to their adoption. Mitigation practices that bear potential extra benefits are barely adopted by farmers, putting in evidence some hidden costs to adoption. Some previous research highlighted some behavior related to uncertainty and risk, leading to partial, sequential adoption, or non-adoption by farmers, regarding their farms’ characteristics and their attitudes toward risk. In this paper, we adapt an “Option value model” to the adoption of mitigation practices by farmers, in a land management framework. This farming portfolio model allows to take into account the level of adoption of new practices, the irreversibility of the conversion of lands into new practices, and the possibility of the permanence of conventional practices on some part of the farm depending on the beliefs of farmers about new practices’ yields, and their own characteristics. The partial adoption associated to option value emerges when farmers exhibit aversion toward risks, that can lead to the disincentives to adopt further in order to wait for more favorable conditions to adopt, and keep the conventional practices at a sufficient level. The role of diverse choice criteria, like the farm size effect and information arrival, is also assessed. Public policies implications are derived from the results.

November 6th, 2017

Impacts of land use and climate change on freshwater biodiversity in France
Basak Bayramoglu et Raja Chakir

Abstract:

The objective of this paper is to analyze the impacts of land use (agriculture, forest, pasture, urban) and climate change on freshwater biodiversity, measured by a fish-based index (FBI) for various French rivers observed between 2001 and 2013. We estimate a spatial econometric land use share model and a statistical spatial panel FBI model. The land use share model describes how land use is affected by economic, pedo-climatic and demographic factors, while the FBI model explains the spatial and temporal distribution of the FBI score by land use and pedo-climatic variables. Our estimation results reveal that rivers in areas with more intensive agriculture and steep pasture are associated to lower freshwater biodiversity compared to forest areas. Our simulations show that climate change will exacerbate negative land use impacts through land-use adaptation, on freshwater biodiversity. We discuss how two command-and-control policies could help improve freshwater biodiversity and cope with the adverse effects of land use and climate change.

April 3rd, 2017

The impacts of climate change on French agricultural productivity
Simone Pieralli

February 6th, 2017

Lise Daunes
Land use analysis and ecosystem services
Abstract:

Land use and land use change are among the major human pressures on the environment, especially on ecosystem services. This paper investigates the consequences of land use and land use change on biodiversity conservation and carbon sequestration. It gives insights about the trade-offs between private landowner economic goal and environmental objectives through a theoretical and an econometric models. We implement a theoretical approach where a representative landowner compares the land use rents to choose the optimal land use. Carbon sequestration and biodiversity are introduced through suitable indicators. We highlight trade-offs between economic (profit maximization) and environmental objectives (carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation) by implementing different public policy scenarios (through taxes and subsidies). We test the previous insights with an econometric application. A land use share model is estimated for major land uses in France. Land use is explained by economic variables (land rents) and on biophysical variables (climate, soil characteristics). Several ecosystem services are taking into account and are function of land use share.

 
January 30th, 2017
Pollution-adjusted productivity changes in French suckler cow farms: The use of a generalized multiplicatively complete Färe-Primont index
Hervé Dakpo

January 9th, 2017
Ressources renouvelables et aversion à l'inégalité : quelles conséquences pour le futur ?
Stellio Del Campo

Abstract:
This paper addresses intragenerational and intergenerational issues about a renewable natural resource exploitation. In particular, we analyze how different equity views, represented through a change in the intragenerational inequality aversion, influence the possible development paths for future generations. We suppose an agent has access to a renewable resource and works to exploit it, while another agent does not have access to it. A social planner implements a transfer mechanism from the former to the latter. We show that if the worker is originally better-off than the receiver, inequality aversion has a negative effect on the resource stock with a lump-sum transfer, but potentially a positive effect with a proportional tax. Reciprocally, the higher the stock the higher the possibilities for future consumptions. These links strongly suggest to deal jointly with the two equity dimensions in order to design consistent environmental policies.

December 12th, 2016
Les interrelations entre services écosystémiques et le rôle des politiques agroenvironnementales
Barbara Langlois