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Abstract
In the context of an upcoming CAP-reform which will most likely condition payments to farmers stronger on a measurable provision of public goods, the aim of this study is to elicit the willingness to pay (WTP) for public goods (PGs) provided by agriculture in the Marchfeld, a dynamically developing and semi-urban region in Austria. Situated between Vienna and Bratislava it is marked by an intensive agricultural production and at the same time rising environmental awareness of the local population. We carry out a discrete choice experiment for the 3 public goods ground water quality, landscape diversity and climate stability, which were pre-selected via focus groups. Due to high preference heterogeneity we estimate a random parameters logit model and include interactions with socio-demographic factors in order to further disentangle differences in preferences. We find a positive and significant WTP for all three public goods, with groundwater quality being most important for the participants, followed by landscape diversity and climate stability. The results of this study in combination with a supply-side assessment, consisting of different management options for farmers, could form the basis for the development of governance mechanisms for the smart provision of public goods by agriculture in the Marchfeld region.
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