Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/242791 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
Centre for Land Tenure Studies Working Paper No. 03/21
Publisher: 
Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), Centre for Land Tenure Studies (CLTS), Ås
Abstract: 
We have used simple incentivized social preference experiments for a sample of 2427 resource-poor rural youth that have formed natural-resource based youth business groups in their home communities. The experiments were combined with questions investigating their attitudes towards environmental conservation and willingness to contribute to conservation of local natural resources related to a compulsory labor contribution program. The paper investigates whether and how the revealed social preferences are associated with the attitudes towards environmental conservation and explores the spatial heterogeneity of conservation attitudes. It tests whether youth with altruistic and egalitarian social preferences are associated with stronger motivations for contributing to the compulsory conservation program than youth with selfish and spiteful preferences. Our study finds evidence in support of this hypothesis. We also find evidence of substantial spatial variation in the attitudes towards the environmental conservation program and much of this heterogeneity seems to be determined at the community (tabia) level which is the lowest administrative level and the level at which the compulsory conservation program is organized. In general, we find strong support for the compulsory conservation work program among the youth. 97% of the youth agree or strongly agree that the program is very important to protect the natural resource base and secure the future livelihoods in their community. On average the subjects were willing to contribute 19.4 days/year free labor to the program, which was close to the current requirement of 20 days/year.
Subjects: 
Social preferences
incentivized experiments
attitudes towards conservation
compulsory public works
local public goods
natural resource conservation
Tigray
JEL: 
D64
D91
H23
H26
Q56
ISBN: 
978-82-7490-294-7
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.