Collective action and environmental policies: contributions of new institutional economics ; Action collective et politiques environnementales : apports de l’économie néo-institutionnelle

The degradation of water resources and aquatic ecosystems are major concerns at the national, European and global scales. Diffuse pollution from agriculture remains a significant problem in the French and European contexts despite the implementation of policies to limit this pollution since the early 1990s.My research focuses on the governance of water quality in rural areas. The objective is to identify the factors favoring or constraining the implementation of collective approaches involving agricultural stakeholders (farm organizations, farmers) to control diffuse water pollution. The research also aims to contribute to the recent developments in new institutional economics applied to the governance of environmental goods and services (transaction cost theory, common-pool resource theory).Four contributions of the research can be distinguished. A first contribution corresponds to the development of an analytical framework combining transaction cost theory and the Social-Ecological Systems (SES) framework for identifying the conditions of emergence and sustainability of agro-environmental collective action. Empirical applications of this framework show how the characteristics of hydrogeological systems, the actors involved, the governance system and the broader context interact in their influence on collective action. A third contribution corresponds to the identification of the drivers of farmers’ participation in collective action to protect water resources. The role of socio-economic and behavioral factors is more particularly highlighted. Finally, the research contributes to the understanding of hybrid forms of governance relying on state intervention and decentralized collective action. More particularly, the analysis highlights the crucial role played by public policies in reducing the uncertainty and transaction costs associated with collective action.In future research, the conceptual framework combining the SES framework and transaction cost theory will be used to analyze the development and ...