Laura Sardonini

Improving value transfer through socio-economic adjustments in a multicountry choice experiment of water conservation alternatives

This study tests the transferability of the nonmarket values of water conservation for domestic and environmental purposes across three south European countries and Australia applying a common choice experiment design. Different approaches are followed to test the transferability of the estimated values, aiming to minimise transfer errors for use in policy analysis, comparing both single- and multicountry transfers, with and without socio-economic adjustments. Within Europe, significant differences are found between implicit prices for environmental water use, but not for domestic water use. In the Australian case study, alleviating restrictions on domestic water use has no significant value. Pooling the three European samples improves the transferability of the environmental flow values between Europe and Australia. Results show that a reduction in transfer error is achieved when controlling for unobserved and observed preference heterogeneity in the single- and multicountry transfers, providing additional support for the superiority of socio-economic adjustment procedures in value transfer.

Spatial Patterns of Change in Agriculture and the Role of the Common Agricultural Policy

This paper identifies and analyses the role of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in affecting the spatial location of agricultural activities in an area of northern Italy. The study is based on survey data (300 observations) regarding the stated intentions of farm households under two CAP scenarios, and uses statistical analysis to identify the potential determinants of different farm reactions, using explicit spatial information (altitude, Less Favoured Area status, agrarian regions). The study demonstrates the relevance of explicitly addressing the differentiated spatial effect of the CAP on different dimensions of agricultural activities. However, the work also highlights the limitations of such a location-based analysis compared with both non-spatial variables and more ‘functional’ spatial variables.

Water Tariffs in Agriculture: Emilia Romagna Case Study

The chapter presents changes in the irrigation tariff system of the irrigation district Tarabina, in the Emilia Romagna Region, Italy. In order to improve the management of the irrigation water resources (distribution of water and related costs), in 2006 the users voluntarily replaced the area-based payment (a financial instrument) with a volumetric tariff (EPI) and introduced a set of formal rules. In the following years, a reduction in water use at district level has been observed. Such an outcome has aroused a particular interest in studying the contribution of the volumetric tariff, intended as an EPI, on the reduction of water use. The capability of such an EPI in reducing the amount of water used in agriculture would strengthen the policy intentions of the EU of implementing measures that induce a more efficient use of water resources. Based on a counterfactual analysis, it has been found that the introduction of the volumetric tariff induced a reduction, on average, of about 50 % of the water used for irrigation along with a reduction of about 70 % of the costs for the non-irrigators. Such findings suggest that EPIs, associated to other instruments, such as site-specific regulations, might improve their effectiveness and pursue multiple policy goals.