The Effect of Administrative Burden on Farmers’ Perceptions of Cross‐Compliance‐Based Direct Payment Policy

In this study, we test the hypothesis that farmers’ experienced administrative burden affects their policy perceptions. Based on survey data from 808 randomly chosen Swiss farmers, a latent class approach is used to depict the heterogeneity of farmers' policy perceptions. We find that 20 percent of farmers are grumpy with the current direct payment policy, 23 percent are supporters, and 57 percent are indifferent, meaning that the latter group of farmers neither agree nor disagree with the direct payment policy. Regression results indicate that the higher the perceived administrative burden, the higher the probability of belonging to the grumpy class of farmers. Additionally, our results show that grumpy farmers have less social exchange than their peers and exhibit lower environmental awareness. Our findings show that the bureaucracy involved in agricultural policy matters not only because it increases private and public administrative costs but also because it negatively shapes farmers' view of agricultural policy.