Nudging French farmers to adopt the new eco-schemes in the future European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)

Last registered on January 22, 2021
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Nudging French farmers to adopt the new eco-schemes in the future European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0007020
Initial registration date
January 22, 2021

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
January 22, 2021, 9:32 AM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country
France
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Arnaud REYNAUD
Affiliation
Toulouse School of Economics
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Benjamin Ouvrard
PI Affiliation
GAEL
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2021-01-28
End date
2021-06-28
Keywords
Agriculture, Behavior, Environment & Energy, Firms & Productivity
Additional Keywords
Social norms, farmers, France
JEL code(s)
Q1
Secondary IDs
Abstract
The study focuses on adoption of eco-schemes (ES) by French farmers. Eco-schemes are new payment schemes for care for the environment and climate which are funded by the European Common Agricultural Policy. Each Member State must propose one or more ES, and farmers have the freedom to participate or not. Here, we propose behavioral interventions aiming at increasing adoption of ES by French farmers. It has been shown that farmers’ decisions to adopt sustainable practices seem to be influenced by their neighbors’ behavior. Our strategy to encourage farmers to adopt ES is then to make more salient social norms of adoption among farmers. To this end we implement a large-scale web survey where French farmers are proposed to adopt two different hypothetical ES: one aiming at compensating farmers who voluntarily dedicate a part of their land to protect biodiversity, and one aiming at compensating farmers who voluntarily reduce the use of crop protection products. Farmers will be randomly assigned to four different informational treatments in which we will vary the reference to the social norm in terms of farmer adoption.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Ouvrard, Benjamin and Arnaud REYNAUD. 2021. "Nudging French farmers to adopt the new eco-schemes in the future European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)." AEA RCT Registry. January 22. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.7020-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

Sponsors

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Farmers are presented two hypothetcal ES and they are asked to tell if they would adopt them.
We provide different types of information regarding adoption of ES by peer farmers, expecting to measure an impact on their own decision to adopt.
Intervention Start Date
2021-01-28
Intervention End Date
2021-02-28

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Willingness-to-accept to implement the new eco-schemes
Subsidy requested by a farmer to adopt an eco-scheme
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Farmers’ beliefs on the eco-schemes efficiency at the society level, at the region level and for the environment (3 beliefs elicited per eco-scheme)
Farmers’ beliefs on what the other farmers in the same region think about the eco-schemes efficiency at the society level, at the region level and for the environment (3 beliefs elicited per eco-scheme)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We rely on an online survey implemented using the web-platform LimeSurvey (version 2.5). Thanks to a French pool company in charge of sending invitation emails to farmers, we have access to a listing of 90,000 French farmers located in France. We implement the survey in two waves. The survey in the wave 1 does not include any kind of behavioral intervention. Farmers are proposed two different eco-schemes, and they are asked if under which financial conditions they would adopt them. They also are asked to provide if they believe that these eco-schemes may generate benefits for the society, farmers in their region and for the environment.
The results obtained from wave 1 will be used to define our four informational treatments in wave 2.
Experimental Design Details
We rely on an online survey implemented using the web-platform LimeSurvey (version 2.5). Thanks to the pool company BVA (https://www.bva-group.com/ ) in charge of sending invitation emails to farmers, we have access to a listing of 90,000 French farmers located in France. Based on previous experiences, we expect a respond rate between 2 and 4 percent which leads to a sample size between 1,800 and 3,600 respondents.
A pretest of the online survey will be conducted on a sample of 2,000 farmers. Then the survey will be conducted in two waves:
• Wave 1: survey sent to 29,000 emails selected randomly in each French department
• Wave 2: survey sent to 59,000 remaining emails
The survey in the wave 1 does not include any kind of behavioral intervention. Farmers are proposed two different eco-schemes, and they are asked if under which financial conditions they would adopt them. They also are asked to provide if they believe that these eco-schemes may generate benefits for the society, farmers in their region and for the environment.
The results obtained from wave 1 will be used to define our informational treatments in wave 2. In each French region, we will compute the share of farmers wishing to adopt eco-schemes, and the share of farmers declaring that these eco-schemes will generate benefits for the society, farmers in their region and for the environment. In the four treatments, we will then vary the regional information provided to each farmer. In the first treatment, we will communicate to the farmers the proportion of farmers who were willing to implement a given eco-scheme on their farm, before the treated farmers answer the question themselves. In the three other tratments, we will communicate to the farmers the beliefs of the farmers of the control group regarding the eco-schemes efficiency at the society level, at the region level and for the environment, before the treated farmers answer the questions themselves.
Randomization Method
Randomization done by the web-survey platfeorm (computer)
Randomization Unit
individual (farmer)
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
Individual observations (no clusters)
Sample size: planned number of observations
Between 1,800 and 3,600 depending upon the response rate to the survey
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Between 450 and 900
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Individual Random Assignment (IRA) Designs—Completely Randomized Controlled Trials MDES=0,118
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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

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Reports, Papers & Other Materials

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