Farmers’ subjectively perceived that administrative transaction costs are of high
importance for the uptake of agri-environmental programs with direct effects on the
effectiveness and efficiency of these programs and the well-being of farmers. This
paper empirically estimates private administrative transaction costs resulting from an
uptake of the newly introduced grassland-based milk and meat program in
Switzerland, based on farmers’ perceived administrative workload. Using ordered
logit models, we analyze how the administrative tasks and farm and farmer
characteristics influence the perceived administrative workload. We find that the time
spent on monitoring or inspection tasks has no effect. In contrast, an outsourcing of
program-related administrative tasks significantly reduces the perceived administrative
workload. We also find that a better understanding of agricultural policy regulations
significantly reduces the farmers’ perceived administrative workload. We recommend
that public administration improve the communication of agricultural policy
regulations, rather than investing in the simplification of administrative forms.