Improving the design of PES & agri-environment schemes: some new results

With Brexit, the UK government has the opportunity to change agri-environmental scheme design in a way which both enhances its environmental delivery, and which improves its cost-effectiveness. We argue that research by economists is helpful in thinking about what these kinds of enhancements might look like.

In this webinar, Professor Nick Hanley (University of Glasgow) looks at some ideas which economists have been exploring recently in order to enhance the design of PES schemes, focussing in particular on “agri-environment” policies such as those run under Pillar 2 of the CAP and its forthcoming replacements in the UK.

The three specific ideas which he focuses on are:

• paying for outcomes (results) rather than paying for management actions;

• incentivising spatial coordination amongst farmers and

• using non-monetary incentives to increase participation.

We tested these 3 ideas out using farmers and students in experimental sessions in Japan, Uruguay and the US and I’ll be sharing some of the results and lessons.