Conserving Data in the Conservation Reserve - 9781933115818

Using the program as a case study for the role of information throughout the policy cycle, Hamilton (public policy, Duke U.) considers the role of information in the development and implementation of the US Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), in which the federal government pays farmers to stop farming their land and advance conservation goals. He uses interviews with regulators, data, and regulatory filings to analyze how the CRP was implemented, how it runs on imperfect information, and improvements made after 1990. He discusses the effect of hidden action and information on the operation of relationships in regulatory politics; key decision points in the evolution of the CRP and how the design of institutions and problems with information provision affected it; and how regulators designed and implemented the metric used to rank and evaluate which lands to use. He also considers reports from the Government Accountability Office, Congressional oversight hearings, and the rulemaking decisions in the Federal Register, and the effects of internet information from the Environmental Working Group, media coverage, and academic assessment on the program. He does not address cost-benefit analysis, how the program might have worked under alternative regulatory structures, or how information provision works in agricultural policy versus other government programs. Distributed by Johns Hopkins U. Press. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)