Valuing Rural Residents' Attitude Regarding agri-environmental Policy in China: A Best-worst Scaling Analysis

In this study, a stated choice survey was conducted in Anhui Province, China. The best-worst scaling method, an alternative method to the discrete choice experiment, was used to value rural residents' attitude toward agri-environmental policy. Using the multinomial logit and random parameter logit model, the results showed that respondents thought the best policy included protecting underground water quality as the objective, straw recycling as the method, technological support provided by the government, a supervision level of 30% of farmers, and a 6,000 RMB subsidy directly disbursed by the government. Conversely, respondents thought the worst policy included protecting biodiversity as the objective, purchasing pesticides and fertilizers from the prescribed list as the method, no technological support provided by the government, an increased supervision level of 50% of farmers, and a 4,500 RMB subsidy requiring a contract with the government. The results of the latent class logit model suggested the respondents who are older, have fewer children under middle school age, less agree with the rural environment will have a large impact on agriculture production, have more knowledge of agricultural and environmental 2 protection would show more sensitivity to the attributes of agri-environmental policies.