Sticks, carrots, and reforestation investment.

摘要

Environmental regulations and public financial assistance programmes are the typical "sticks" and "carrots" facing non-industrial private forest (NIPF) landowners in the USA. This paper presents a theoretical framework and empirical evidence on theimpacts of the Endangered Species Act and public financial assistance programmes (cost-share programmes and a tax incentive programme) on reforestation investment behaviour. The results indicate that NIPF landowners' reforestation investments are influenced negatively by environmental regulations and positively by public financial assistance programmes. The results imply that both sticks and carrots can be used simultaneously to influence NIPF landowners' reforestation behaviour.