Spatial Targeting of Agri-Environmental Policy and Urban Development

Widespread public support exists for the provision of natural amenities, such as lakes, rivers or wetlands, and for efforts to preserve these from agricultural pollution. Agri-environmental policies contribute to these efforts by encouraging farmers to adopt environmentally friendly practices within the vicinity of these ecosystems. A spatially targeted agri-environmental policy promotes natural amenities and may thereby affect household location decisions. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent of these impacts on the spatial urban structure. We extend a monocentric city model to include farmers’ responses to an agri-environmental policy. Our main findings are that the implementation of a spatially targeted agri-environmental policy may lead to some additional urban development, which could conflict with the aim of the policy.