Behavioural economics and agricultural production choices: integrating behavioural factors into agricultural production microeconomic models.

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INRAE presentation

The French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment (INRAE) is a major player in research and innovation. It is a community of 12,000 people with 272 research, experimental research, and support units located in 18 regional centres throughout France. Internationally, INRAE is among the top research organisations in the agricultural and food sciences, plant and animal sciences, as well as in ecology and environmental science. It is the world’s leading research organisation specialising in agriculture, food and the environment. INRAE’s goal is to be a key player in the transitions necessary to address major global challenges. Faced with a growing world population, climate change, resource scarcity, and declining biodiversity, the Institute has a major role to play in building solutions and supporting the necessary acceleration of agricultural, food and environmental transitions.

The post-doctoral researcher will be a member of the research unit SMART (Agricultural Structures and Markets, Resources and Territory), which brings together around sixty people, under the joint supervision of INRAE (Ecosocio Department) and the Institut Agro Rennes-Angers (Social Sciences Department). Its scientific project aims to contribute to four research themes: the behaviour of agricultural producers and public regulations; markets, agriculture and development; industrial strategies of agri-food companies in a globalized economy; the organization and performance of agricultural and food sectors.

Work environment, missions and activities

This post-doc is part of the junior professor chair "Common European Agricultural Policy intervention tools for the European Green Deal". The chair's project aims to improve public interventions to promote the agro-ecological transition using behavioural economics. Indeed, the current design of agro-environmental policy instruments is often based on a simplified and homogeneous perception of farmers' behaviour, assuming a rational economic logic of cost-benefit analysis, which can partly explain their ineffectiveness (Brown et al. 2020). Advances in the field of behavioural sciences have led to the development of a new strand of literature in agricultural and environmental economics. It aims to explain the deviation of some of farmers’ behaviours from the expected behaviour under the hypothesis of rational profit-maximizing agents (Dessart et al. 2019). This deviation is explained by factors, called behavioural factors, which include cognitive abilities, emotions, and certain personal and social characteristics such as attitudes towards the environment, towards risk, trust and social norm effects (Schaub et al. 2023). A meta-analysis (Swart et al. 2023) shows that these behavioural factors can sometimes play a more important role than monetary incentives in explaining farmers' willingness to adopt sustainable practices.

The post-doctoral researcher will contribute to the first part of the project, which aims at studying:

1. farmers' attitudes towards risk and the environment as well as their social and temporal preferences and
2. how these can be integrated into micro-econometric models of observed choices developed and applied in the SMART research unit to better understand their role in farmers’ decision making.

This part of the project aims to characterize the heterogeneity of production choices and participation in existing programs that has so far been unexplained by production models (Koutchadé et al. 2018). In collaboration with the junior professor and with the support of the SMART team working on production models (A. Carpentier, P. Koutchadé, F. Féménia and E. Letort) the post-doctoral researcher will be responsible for:

• Contributing to the identification of a relevant case study and to the co-construction of relevant research agendas with stakeholders.
• Design protocols to measure farmers' attitudes towards risk, the environment, and their social and time preferences.
• Integrate these attitude measures into micro-econometric models explaining production choices.
• Based on the results obtained, propose levers to design or improve policy interventions for the agro-ecological transition. For example, insurance mechanisms could be considered to counterbalance the revealed effects of risk or loss aversion.
• Contribute to the writing of scientific papers.
• Present at national and European scientific conferences.

Training and skills

• PhD in economics.
• Theoretical knowledge and applied skills in agricultural and/or environmental microeconomics.
• Interest and relational skills for the co-design of research agendas with stakeholders of the agro-ecological transition.
• Language: French (in particular with stakeholders) and English

Desirable:

• Behavioural and experimental economics, experience in designing experimental economic protocols.
• Experience in the field of agri-environmental policies would be particularly appreciated.
• Knowledge of micro-econometric agricultural production models
• Experience in designing and implementing field surveys.
• Knowledge and implementation of open science principles

INRAE's life quality

By joining our teams, you benefit from (depending on the type of contract and its duration):

- up to 30 days of annual leave + 15 days "Reduction of Working Time" (for a full time);
- parenting support: CESU childcare, leisure services;
- skills development systems: training, career advise;
- social support: advice and listening, social assistance and loans;
- holiday and leisure services: holiday vouchers, accommodation at preferential rates;
- sports and cultural activities;
- collective catering.

How to apply

I send my CV and my motivation letter