Measuring Individual Preferences for Rural Multifunctionality: The Importance of Demographic and Residential Heterogeneity (2012)

Analytical hierarchy process; Castile and Leon (Spain); countryside; individuals’ opinion; rural development policy; social welfare.

We propose an approach to conceptualise ‘rural multifunctionality’ and further
investigate peoples’ preferences for it. We use an opinion survey concerning individual
preferences for several functions that rural spaces should provide. We use
the analytical hierarchy process approach to assess the relative importance of
each function. The results show how the social weightings of these functions are
balanced, confirming that society demands truly multifunctional rural territories.
Nonetheless, differences are found in individual preferences. We explore the
demographic and socioeconomic determinants of these individual preferences,
paying particular attention to the importance of heterogeneity using seemingly
unrelated regressions. In short, results from this research could be employed as a
useful informative element for the future development of public policies related
to rural spaces.

Autores

Gómez-Limón, JA., Vera-Toscano, E. y Rico-González, M.

Tipo

articulos post-print

Referencia

Journal of Agricultural Economics