A Goal-Framing Approach to Green Payments’ Efficiency When Vertical Integration Is an Option

Abstract

This article explores farmer’s decisions regarding the expansion of organic farming through intensive input use and the degree of in-house organic fertilizer production. Using a theoretical synthesis of two strands of the scholarly literature, namely pro-environmental norms and the goal-framing theory, the contribution of this article to the current literature is: (i) it redefines the concept of the crowding effects, which encompasses both changes in environmental preferences and in normative objectives; (ii) it points that the impact of a green payment on vertical integration depends on both the relative (i.e. the direction) and the absolute (i.e. the magnitude) size of the crowding effect being expected; (iii) it states that a trade-off between input use and vertical integration does always exist once a land subsidy is implemented, but not necessarily if a price premium is offered instead.

Keywords: personal and social norms, crowding theory, goal-framing theory, green payments vertical integration

JEL Classification: D91, Q18, Q58