PR - Policy Impact Analysis Of Penalty And Reward Scenarios To Promote Flower Strips Using A Business Simulation Game

In Germany the cultivation of silage maize has risen due to the increasing number of biogas plants and the good qualities of maize as biogas substrate. But, various reasons speak for the limitation of maize. So the policy may be promoting alternative biogas substrates. A currently much discussed biogas substrate is the use of a special floral seed blend. A business simulation game is used to investigate whether the implementation of a reward and a penalty policy will improve the uptake of flower strips in the production program of farmers. The results indicate that the implementation of these policy measures have a promoting effect on the cultivation area of flower strips. The penalty policy leads to a stronger increase in the growing area of flower strips than the reward policy, although the policies have the same income effect.

Keywords: policy impact analysis, flower strips, experimental economics, business simulation game