Does activating legacy concerns make farmers more likely to support conservation programmes?

ABSTRACT

Recent findings in behavioural sciences suggest that individuals may engage more in pro-social behaviour if they are prompted to reflect on how they will be remembered. Using experimental survey data with a between-subjects design, we examine the relevance of activating legacy concerns in the context of small businesses. More precisely, we investigate farmers’ intention to participate in conservation programmes for the sake of legacy. While the legacy effect is not found to be stronger than another priming manipulation at the global level, it is significant among first-generation farmers as opposed to multi-generation farmers. Inherited family farms are more prone to be influenced by non-environmental legacies whereas first-generation farmers can be more interested in leaving an environmental legacy.

KEYWORDS:

• Conservation programmes
• experiment
• family business
• first- and multi-generation farmers
• legacy

JEL NUMBERS:

• Q19
• Q57
• D9

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Ezra Markowitz, Kaitlin Toner Raimi and two anonymous reviewers for their useful comments and suggestions. They also thank Katherine Farrow for editorial assistance. The authors also acknowledge financial support from the VITAL project (ERA-Net FACCE SURPLUS, European Commission grant 652615). This study is also a part of CompAg program (INRA ECOSERV-P10664 and ANR-17-CE32-0014).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 See for more details: https://agriculture.gouv.fr/maec-les-nouvelles-mesures-agro-environnementales-et-climatiques-de-la-pac.

2 http://www.trameverteetbleue.fr/presentation-tvb/qu-est-ce-que-trame-verte-bleue/definitions-trame-verte-bleue?language%3Den=fr.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the VITAL project [ERA-Net FACCE SURPLUS, European Commission grant 652615]. This study is also a part of CompAg program [grant numbers INRA ECOSERV-P10664 and ANR-17-CE32-0014].