【经岚传递】经济激励对环境保护有用吗？

【经岚传递】16L37

经济激励对环境保护有用吗？基于经验研究的总结

——[读论文]之“环境经济政策”系列

编译/ZQ

本期【经岚传递】所介绍的是来自于Julian Rode等发表在Ecological Economics（117 (2015) 270–282）上的“Motivation crowding by economic incentives in conservation policy: A review of the empirical evidence”一文。

文章摘要：

在环境保护的过程中，经常使用的政策工具手段包括经济激励。文章通过对经验分析的总结来加深理解经济激励对于环境保护的“挤出”和“强化”两种作用机制。

首先，文章对环境保护动机背后的心理机制进行了综合和分类。作者开展了有关经验研究的总结，这些研究检验了经济激励所带来的正负两种动机在环境保护上的不同影响。在总结18项经验研究的基础上，文章区分了“挤出”和“强化”两种效应。最后，我们讨论了这个结果对于环境政策与研究的应用价值。作者注意到，不同研究之间的结论因为前提条件、文化和背景等方面的异质性而千差万别。作者的结论是，着眼于环境保护的经济激励型政策工具在全球范围内广泛推行，但如何评估内生性的动机，以及动机性结构的变化等，这些问题对于有效采用经济激励型工具非常重要。作者建议，考虑到不确定性因素对于环境保护内在动机的不利影响，在采用经济激励工具时应持谨慎态度。

Abstract

The paper seeks to advance our understanding of the extent to which the use of economic incentives can undermine (“crowd out”) or reinforce (“crowd in”) people's intrinsic motivations to engage in biodiversity and ecosystem conservation. We first synthesize and classify the psychological mechanisms behind motivation crowding effects. Then we conduct a systematic review of empirical studies that test for motivation crowding effects triggered by economic incentives to encourage nature conservation. Based on eighteen empirical studies,we identify evidence of motivation crowding out and, to a lesser extent, crowding in effects. Finally, we discuss the implications for environmental policy and research.We note that the limited comparability of results across studies, the lack of baseline information about pre-existing intrinsic motivations, and a complexity stemming from cultural and contextual heterogeneity appear to be the main challenges when it comes to establishing more conclusive evidence. We conclude that, as economic instruments for conservation are increasingly being used worldwide, it is crucial to assess existing intrinsic motivations and expected changes in people's motivational structures prior to large-scale implementation.We call for caution with economic incentives in situations involving considerable uncertainty regarding the detrimental impacts on intrinsic motivation.

备注：经岚坊将定期追踪、介绍和传递国际学术界最新而有趣的环境经济学论文文献，希望推动环境经济学的学习和创新，如有兴趣加入到【经岚传递】的行列，请给本微信号留言，或者致信[e-mail]，我们将尽快给予回复。