Agricultural machinery for cleaner air An analysis of the effectiveness of three policy measures for reducing residue burning in Northern China

The burning of agricultural residue is one large contributor to poor air quality in China. Due to technical requirements and adverse incentives, farmers are however still reluctant to give up this traditional form of residue management. Current policies are aiming at improving the spread of innovation by both coercive measures penalizing residue burning and programs supporting more sustainable alternatives. The current paper employs a fixed-effect model along farm-level and village level panel data collected in 2013 to assess trends in residue management and analyze the impact of three different policies on residue management choices of farmers in North-East China. Our data reveals that the 2008 residue burning ban could not achieve any significant reduction of residue burning. Instead we found that policies that focus on enabling farmers to comply with regulations, for instance machinery subsidies and demonstration sites, had a significant positive effect on sustainable residue management. While burning bans are still a necessary component of environmental policy, we therefore recommend placing highest priority on policies providing economic incentives to achieve long-term changes in farmers management strategies. Acknowledgement