Work

World Heritage Status and Farmers’ Income: Evidence From a Regression Discontinuity Design in Colombia

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: ABSTRACT The core of Colombia's coffee growing region was designated as a World Heritage (WH) site in 2011, making a distinction between “the core” of the region and “the periphery.” However, the coffee cultural heritage does not abruptly stop at the WH boundary but it exists inside and outside the boundary. This allows us to use a regression discontinuity design (RDD) to identify the income effect for farmers located just inside the WH site. We find that the WH designation of the region increases coffee farmers’ income by up to $757 per month. The mechanism includes more tourism activities inside the coffee farms by 39%, higher adoption of sustainable farming practices, increasing organic coffee production by 8.38%, and increasing payments for environmental services (PES) by 2.35%.

Source: Agricultural Economics

DOI: 10.1111/agec.70019

Authors: Orlando Rodríguez, Maria Vrachioli, David Wüpper, Johannes Sauer

Institutions: Technical University of Munich, University of Bonn

Language: English

Topic: Agricultural Innovations and Practices

Subfield: General Agricultural and Biological Sciences

Field: Agricultural and Biological Sciences

Domain: Life Sciences

SDGs: No poverty, Reduced inequalities, Decent work and economic growth

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $4,030