The impact of alternative policies on livestock farmers' willingness to recycle manure : evidence from central China

Purpose: This article examines the impact of different policy instruments on livestock farmers' willingness to recycle manure. The results shed light on the optimal policy combination. Design/methodology/approach: A game theoretical framework is constructed to illustrate farmers' optimal strategies under different policies. Theoretical results are empirically tested by survey data from beef cattle farmers in Central China. Findings: Empirical results show that penalties work better than subsidies if each type of policy is implemented separately. The authors also find a positive interaction between subsidy and penalty policies, suggesting that a combination of subsidy and penalty policies produces the best outcome in incentivizing livestock farmers to recycle manure. Furthermore, planting and breeding simultaneously have the strongest effect on increasing livestock farmers' willingness to recycle manure, suggesting that the combination of planting and breeding can be an optimal strategy for manure management. Originality/value: This study is based on firsthand survey data and provides new evidence on the effectiveness of alternative environmental policies on manure recycling.