Protest Responses and Willingness to Accept: Ecosystem Services Providers’ Preferences towards Incentive‐Based Schemes

Abstract

The identification and treatment of protest responses in stated preference surveys has long been subject to debate. We analyse protest responses while investigating ecosystem services providers’ preferences for incentive‐based schemes. We use a choice experiment for olive farmers’ preferences for agri‐environmental scheme participation in southern Spain. Our two main objectives are: first, to identify and discuss a range of possible motives for protest responses that emerge in a WTA context; second, we analyse the impact on WTA estimates of censoring serial non‐participation linked to protest or high compensation requirements (very high takers). Using a random parameter logit model in WTA space, we find that the inclusion or exclusion of serial non‐participants in the analysis can have a significant impact on marginal and total WTA estimates. Based on the findings, the paper makes recommendations on how to reduce the incidence of protest responses through survey design, regarding the identification of protesters as opposed to very high takers, and regarding the treatment of both groups of respondents for WTA estimation.

Farmer preference for improved corn seeds in Chiapas, Mexico: A choice experiment approach

“…Our results were similar to those of Villanueva et al (2017), who compared the characteristics of three groups of olive farmers in Andalusia, Spain (protesters, very high takers, and participants).…”

“…Windle & Rolfe (2005) used this methodology to analyze alternatives for agricultural diversification in Australia. This method has also found use in organic agriculture (Meas et al, 2015), food traceability (Wu et al, 2015), maintenance programs for plants and animals (Roessler et al, 2008;Asrat et al, 2010;Birol et al, 2012), and provision of ecosystem services (Villanueva et al, 2017). However, empirical applications of DCE regarding farming innovations are few.…”

Drivers of farmers’ willingness to adopt extensive farming practices in a globally important bird area

“…4 Stated preference data is usually free of these limitations, and hence, it is increasingly used for policy-relevant analysis in many fields of applied microeconomics, such as agricultural, environmental, health, transportation or public goods economics (Hanley and Czajkowski 2017). Villanueva et al (2017) list 54 stated preference studies of farmers' preferences for AES. These studies can be tailored to specific sectoral contexts (e.g., gardens, winegrowers, dairy farms, crop farms, pastoralists and grazers, foresters), type of land (e.g., arable land, meadows, wetlands), and geographic regions.…”

Unraveling determinants of inferred and stated attribute nonattendance: Effects on farmers’ willingness to accept to join agri‐environmental schemes

“…Thus, our analysis does not include those respondents who ignore attributes due to protest behaviour, as suggested by Alemu et al (2012). We refer readers interested in the issue of protest responses in studies investigating ES providers' WTA to Villanueva et al (2017a).…”

“…We refer readers interested in the issue of protest responses in studies investigating ES providers’ WTA to Villanueva et al. ().…”