Do farmers exhibit a high degree of cooperation?

Summary

The EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), through the Agri-Environmental Climate Measures (AECMs) provides financial compensation to farmers for adopting practices that improve environmental sustainability. But, despite the attribution of over a quarter of the CAP’s budget to mitigate and adapt to climate change in the period 2014-2020, the effectiveness of AECMs is strongly criticized. Collective schemes could potentially play a role in improving the effectiveness of agri-environmental policies compared to schemes that are implemented following an individual farm-level approach. In my thesis I conduct a meta-analysis of Public Goods Games (PGG) to determine whether farmers have a high willingness to cooperate, an important prerequisite for the implementation of collective contracts. Furthermore, I assess if there are differences in PGG studies conducted in the lab and in the field.