Changing environmental conservation attitudes: Evidence from a framed field experiment among small-scale coffee farmers in Colombia

Ann-Kristin Reitmann

No V-82-20, Passauer Diskussionspapiere, Volkswirtschaftliche Reihe from University of Passau, Faculty of Business and Economics

Abstract: This paper evaluates the effect of training and extension services on environmental conservation attitudes among small-scale coffee farmers in Colombia. Post-harvest coffee processing is traditionally very water-intensive and poses a threat to the environment, which is why it is of particular importance to improve the coffee farmers' environmental attitudes. Theory predicts that improved attitudes towards a certain behavior will under certain circumstances also translate into behavioral changes - hence, in this context, an increase in environmental conservation. Two different measures of attitudes on environmental conservation are assessed: stated attitudes (self-reported survey questions) and revealed attitude (elicited via a framed field experiment). For the latter, farmers were offered to donate an endowment to a local reforestation project, where the farmers' willingness to donate is assumed to correlate with the valuation of environmental conservation. Based on the lower bound estimates, I do not find significant impacts of training participation on stated or revealed attitudes towards environmental conservation. Yet, at the upper bound, a positive and statistically significant effect on stated attitudes can be detected. This paper also makes a methodological contribution by critically reflecting on the suitability of both attitude measures to proxy for environmental conservation attitudes.

Keywords: stated attitudes; revealed attitudes; environmental conservation; framed field experiment; Colombia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D91 O13 O22 Q12 Q20 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-env and nep-exp
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:upadvr:v8220

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