Abstract

In a context of water scarcity, optimizing its use in the agricultural sector is one of the spearheads of current agricultural policies. In this paper, we test several instruments to encourage the voluntary adoption of water smart meters by French farmers. Using a choice experiment with randomized treatments on 1264 farmers, we test the effects of two types of nudges (priming and framing vs testimony) and a conditional subsidy (varying the minimum adoption rate). The results show that, considering the conditional subsidy only, the “social norm” effect, captured through the adoption rate, is triggered before the majority is reached (25% threshold). However, the conditional subsidy has no effect anymore when the condition threshold is too high (75% threshold). Still, combining the conditional subsidy with the two nudges has highly significant effects smart meters’ adoption. We conclude that the conditional subsidy and the testimony are complementary instruments, i.e. highest effects are observed when both are combined with a 75% threshold.

Keywords : Choice experiment, Randomized treatments, Water smart-meters, French farmers, Social norms, Nudges.

Co-authors : B. Ouvrard, R. Preget, A. Reynaud

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