International Economics Commons^™

Payment For Environmental Services: A Comparison Of Us And Eu Agri-Environmental Policies, Kathy Baylis, Stephen Peplow, Gordon Rausser, Leo Simon

Kathy Baylis

Agri-environmental policies (AEPs) in the United States and the European Union are examples of payments for environmental services that pay farmers to reduce the negative externalities of agricultural production, while serving as a means to transfer public funds to farmers. We show that despite similar origins, AEPs in the two regions differ both in their specific objectives and in their implementation. For example, AEPs in most member states of the EU-15 have the additional objective of using agriculture as a driver for rural development. This objective is achieved by compensating farmers for the private delivery of positive public goods, such …