Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/57142 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
Working Paper Series in Economics No. 209
Publisher: 
Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre, Lüneburg
Abstract: 
We empirically study personal norms of sustainability, conceptualized according to the normactivation theory and operationalized under the notion of strong ecological-economic sustainability, for commercial cattle farmers in semi-arid rangelands of Namibia, a system that is subject to extensive degradation. We characterize farmers' personal norms, study their determinants, and analyze their impact on actual management based on the dual-preferences model. We find personal norms of sustainability that are heterogeneous across farmers, but vary little with socio-demographic or environmental characteristics. We find no evidence for a significant impact of personal norms on actual management behavior, which may be due to farmers not feeling capable for averting adverse long-term consequences of their management. This may contribute to the observed degradation of rangelands in Namibia.
Subjects: 
commercial cattle farming
Namibia
norm-activation theory
personal norms
dual-preferences model
semi-arid rangelands
sustainability
JEL: 
D63
Q12
Q57
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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