@article{Xu:100735,
      recid = {100735},
      author = {Xu, Jintao and Zhang, Haipeng and Bennett, Jeffrey W. and  Wang, Xuehong and Eigenraam, Mark},
      title = {Ecological Afforestation in China: A Market-based  Approach},
      address = {2011},
      number = {422-2016-26906},
      pages = {17},
      year = {2011},
      abstract = {This article focuses on the program of Ecological  Afforestation on barren lands, degraded arable lands,  harvested sites and sloped farmland in Sichuan, China.  Farmers were given the opportunity to propose afforestation  activities for which they would be paid an specified  amount. These bids and predictions of the expected  environmental benefits to be generated were used to assess  the net benefit of each proposal. Most features of the  bidding scheme were successfully implemented and  improvements in the economic efficiency of the  afforestation scheme were observed. The market-based  approach is demonstrated to be a practical way forward for  Ecological Afforestation in China. The bidding scheme  showed savings of approximately 110,000 Yuan when compared  to past grant based programs. However, the bidding scheme  is shown to increase the transaction costs of achieving the  policy goal, by about 30 per cent compared to the previous  ‘command and control’ regime. When transaction costs are  accounted for there are still cost savings when compared to  the command and control approach. Finding effective methods  to reduce transaction costs will be key to any future  implementation of the Ecological Afforestation bidding  scheme.},
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/100735},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.100735},
}