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Abstract
The 2003 review of the Common Agricultural
Policy (CAP) has introduced several new policy tools,
among which cross-compliance. The introduction of this
new policy entails production costs, along with other
types of costs arising at the farm level: administrative,
information, organisational costs, called transaction
costs. The purpose of this paper is to determine the
nature of transaction costs and to assess them. The
literature on transaction costs in agriculture has, until
now, mainly been devoted to the voluntary measures
implemented within the framework of the European
agri-environmental policy. The first part of the paper
intends to use this literature to apply the private
transaction costs analysis to the issue of cross
compliance. The second part attempts to assess these
costs. On the basis of a survey conducted in 2006 among
a sample of 39 farmers from the Midi Pyrenees French
region, a descriptive statistical analysis (Multiple
Classification Analysis - MCA) permits to associate
farmer profiles with different levels of incurred
transaction costs. These profiles reveal the impact which
the farmers’ responsibilities (professional networks) and
the role of voluntary commitments previously
undertaken may have on the nature and importance of
transaction costs. This paper opens up new perspectives
on the adoption criteria that should be taken into
account in the evolution of agri-environmental
regulations. It appears that growing administrative
requirements could prompt farmers to outsource tasks
which most of them carry out on their own today.