Resources Science ›› 2019, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (7): 1227-1239.doi: 10.18402/resci.2019.07.04

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Impact of informal institutions and environmental regulations on farmers’ green production behavior: Based on survey data of 1105 households in Hubei Province

Fenni LI1,2(), Junbiao ZHANG1,2(), Ke HE1,2   

  1. 1. College of Economics & Management, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430074, China
    2. Hubei Rural Development Research Center, Wuhan 430074, China
  • Received:2018-10-17 Revised:2019-03-19 Online:2019-07-25 Published:2019-07-25

Abstract:

Relying on informal institutions and environmental regulations to regulate farmers’ green production behavior is of great significance for promoting the green transformation of agriculture and realizing agricultural sustainable development. Taking no tillage technology, organic fertilizer application technology, and “straw return to soil” technology as an example, based on the survey data of 1105 farming households in Hubei Province, and by constructing a multivariate probit model, this study analyzed the impact of informal institutions and environmental regulations on farmers’ green production behavior. The result shows that: (1) Informal institutions and environmental regulations play a significant role in promoting farmers’ green production behavior. Informal institutions promote farmers’ green production behavior through developing a new value system, monitoring and penalty, and dissemination and internalization. Environmental regulations promote farmers’ green production behavior through guidance-oriented regulation and incentive-focused regulation. (2) Prohibitive regulation in environmental regulations did not passed the significance test, which indicates “relative institutional failure” of current environmental regulations in restraining farmers’ production behavior. (3) Informal institutions and environmental regulations have certain interactive effects on farmers’ green production behavior. Informal institutions can be used as a substitute mechanism for environmental regulations to promote farmers’ participation in green production. We argue that the reason that environmental regulations show “relative institutional failure” is that informal institutions have not been given enough attention. In the future, we should not only continue to strengthen the role of environmental regulations in green production of rural households, but also cultivate informal institutions, and induce the formation of an impact mechanism in which informal institutions and environmental regulations mutually support and supplement each other.

Key words: institutional failure, informal institutions, environmental regulations, farmers’ green production behavior, multivariate probit model, Hubei Province