Nitrate Pollution Control Policy and Its Impact on Farms' Performance: A Nonparametric Approach

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to develop models with an individual and a collective management of the European Nitrate directive. The objective is to compare productive efficiency of farms under the two regimes. First, we develop a model that explicitly integrate the individual constraint on organic manure spreading. The individual threshold is introduced as a productive right. Then, we develop a framework that allows for modelling exchange of productive rights among producers. The simulation of a management of the spreading constrainst on organic manure at the regional level give an estimate of the potential gains that can be realised by allowing a collective maagement of the European environmental regulation. Models are based on a nonparametric frontier approach (Data Envelopment Analysis). An illustration is provided on a sample of farms from the French pig sector. Results highlights gains that would have been made if collective management had been allowed instead of an individual regulation as stated in the Nitrate directive.Environmental regulations, Manure management, pig farming, Data Envelopment Analysis, Environmental Economics and Policy, C61, D21, Q12, Q52,