Abstract:
Strengthening the effective recycling of waste agricultural film is of practical significance for promoting the comprehensive green transformation of agricultural development and building an agricultural power. As a “top-down” governance tool, environmental regulation is crucial to solve the problem of agricultural film recycling. This study empirically analyzes the impact of heterogeneous environmental regulation on farmers’ agricultural film recycling by using propensity score matching method based on the survey data of farmers in the monitoring sites of the second national pollution census in Yunnan. Results show that: 1) Incentive regulation and guiding regulation significantly promote farmers to adopt agricultural film recycling behavior and standardized disposal methods; 2) The combination of incentive regulation and guiding regulation can effectively activate the policy synergy and play a more significant regulatory effect on farmers’ agricultural film recycling; 3) The positive effect of incentive regulation and guiding regulation on agricultural film recycling is more significant among small-scale farmers and farmers in minority areas. The positive effect of incentive regulation on agricultural film recycling is more significant among middle and high burden farmers; and 4) Incentive regulation promotes farmers’ agricultural film recycling by improving perceived benefits and reducing perceived costs. Guiding regulation promotes farmers’ agricultural film recycling by improving perceived ecological value. Accordingly, this study proposes that efforts should be made to promote agricultural film recycling from the aspects of strengthening incentive regulation and optimizing subsidy system, deepening guiding regulation and enhancing publicity effect, coordinating policy tools and activating regulation effectiveness, improving policy accuracy and implementing differentiated regulation strategies, and strengthening farmers’ value perception and enhancing the effectiveness of regulation tools.