Beyond_a_market_discourse

This dataset accompanies the article “Beyond a Market Discourse: Is Framing a Solution to Avoid Motivational Crowding Out in Payments for Ecosystem Services?”. It contains survey and experimental data collected from 157 small-scale cattle farmers in the municipality of Junín, Colombia, between December 2017 and March 2018. The dataset combines pre-experimental survey data (sociodemographics, environmental attitudes, reported pro-environmental motives, inequality aversion), incentivized behavioral data from a three-round lab-in-the-field dictator-style game simulating upstream forest conservation and downstream water provision and treatment assignment indicators for five experimental conditions. The main behavioral outcome is hectares of forest conserved (0–8) in each round (1-baseline, 2-policy, 3-post-policy).

Research hypothesis: The study tests whether the framing of a Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) policy moderates motivational crowding effects. Specifically, it examines two framing dimensions: (1) how the payment is described (payment vs. reward vs. compensation), and (2) which ecosystem services are emphasized (water only vs. additional cultural or regulating services). The key hypothesis is that certain framings crowd in forest conservation relative to a neutral control framing, particularly after the incentive is removed.