A critical issue in the context of sustainable agriculture is the reduction of pesticides. Despite well-known adverse effects, farmers around the world continue using pesticides with mostly inappropriate ways. Relevant policies have assumed that farmers themselves are primarily responsible for pesticide misuse. However, the responsibility of pesticide retailers has never been quantified due to the difficulty in obtaining reliable data. An empirical study was conducted with smallholder farmers who collected 9,670 pesticide retailers’ recommendations from 1489 surveys in the highlands of Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru. This original design allowed obtaining for the first time genuine responses about pesticide recommendations from retailers at a large scale. When comparing retailers’ recommendations with product datasheets, the results suggest that 88.2% of recommendations standards were incorrectly followed resulting in dosing recommendations that were either excessive or insufficient and accurate less than 12% of the time. An in-depth analysis also showed that 79.2% of recommended products pertained to only 6 modes of action, thus increasing the risks of pest resistance. An expert retailer model further showed that all highly toxic pesticides could be replaced by less-toxic ones. Several ways to alleviate these detrimental consequences are proposed, by acting at the root of pesticide misuse–at the retailer’s recommendation stage.

Behavioral interventions appealing to taxpayers' reciprocity often leave tax compliance unaffected. We provide evidence that a "fiscal exchange nudge" increased tax compliance in a setting where one might not expect it: crisis-ridden Argentina. In a randomized controlled trial with over 20,000 taxpayers, a tax bill visually celebrating realized public works benefiting children increased payment rates of tax delinquents by about 20 percent, or almost 40 percent when the bills were delivered in person. Without the appeal, the new bill design generated significantly fewer payments. Changes in the design of the tax bill also increased arrears cancellation. We estimate the ratio of marginal revenues to costs for the fiscal exchange bill to be 18. The factors we associate with the unexpectedly positive impacts are consistent with strengthening an affective response. We find persistent effects of the experiment two years later. The results suggest that communities have more scope to increase tax revenues through non-threatening interventions.

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