Research On The Investment Efficiency Of Grassland Ecological Compensation Award Policy

Since 2011,China has implemented a grassland ecological protection compensation and reward policy(referred to as the "grassland ecological compensation policy")in 13 provinces in Inner Mongolia and other grassland pastoral areas.By providing subsidies and rewards to farmers and herdsmen,the government encourages them to scientifically graze and reasonably use grasslands.At present,this policy has started its third round of implementation.The implementation effect of the grassland ecological compensation policy is a main field for policy practitioners and academia.A large number of scholars have conducted extensive research on the evaluation of the implementation effect of this policy.The previous studies mainly focuses on the evaluation of ecological restoration effects,the livelihood status of herdsmen,and the impact on the animal husbandry industry in a single dimension,while the evaluation of policy investment efficiency based on multiple dimensions is relatively insufficient.The grassland ecological compensation policy is one of the important sources of income for pastoral households and an important measure to achieve rural revitalization in China.The effectiveness of its investment is one of the key factors for achieving high-quality development in pastoral areas.This thesis takes 78 prefecture level cities in 8 provinces that have implemented the grassland ecological compensation policy as evaluation units to measure the investment efficiency of the grassland ecological compensation policy and analyze the influencing factors.Firstly,this thesis reviews and comments on the evolution and effectiveness of grassland ecological compensation policies in China,as well as the efficiency evaluation of financial transfer payments and ecological compensation projects.Secondly,based on the theories of sustainable development,public goods,externality,public finance and performance management,this thesis conducts a qualitative analysis of the status quo of grassland ecological subsidy policy investment,and discusses its effectiveness.Thirdly,based on the three stage data envelopment analysis(DEA)model,quantitatively calculate the investment efficiency of grassland ecological compensation policies.Then,qualitative analysis is conducted on the factors that affect the investment efficiency of grassland ecological compensation policies;Finally,this thesis proposes policy recommendations to further improve the investment efficiency of grassland ecological compensation policies.This study found that:(1)There are two main problems in the implementation of China’s grassland ecological compensation policy.Firstly,the policy investment scale has expanded,but it has not effectively expanded the income sources of herdsmen;The second is the optimization of policy investment structure,but it has not effectively curbed the phenomenon of overloading and overgrazing.(2)During the research period,the average investment efficiency of China’s grassland ecological compensation policy was only 0.442.After excluding environmental factors,the average investment efficiency of the grassland ecological compensation policy increased to 0.792;The low pure technological efficiency is the main reason for the low investment efficiency of grassland ecological compensation policies.(3)The factors that affect the investment efficiency of grassland ecological compensation policies mainly include policy content design,policy supervision and evaluation,government policy execution ability,and technology application ability.Based on the above research findings,this article believes that the government can improve the investment efficiency of grassland ecological compensation policies by optimizing policy content design,improving policy supervision and evaluation mechanisms,enhancing policy execution capabilities,and strengthening technical guidance capabilities.