RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Additionality in U.S. Agricultural Conservation Programs
JF Land Economics
JO Land Econ
FD University of Wisconsin Press
SP 19
OP 35
DO 10.3368/le.94.1.19
VO 94
IS 1
A1 Roger Claassen
A1 Eric N. Duquette
A1 David J. Smith
YR 2018
UL http://le.uwpress.org/content/94/1/19.abstract
AB Agricultural conservation programs aim to improve environmental quality by using payments to support voluntary adoption of environmentally sound practices. Supported practices, however, yield additional environmental gain only if they would not have been adopted without payment. We estimate additionality for selected practices using propensity score matching to analyze data from the Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS). We find that greater than 95% of off-field structural practices (filter strips, riparian buffers) supported by payments are additional but that less than 50% of conservation tillage payments yield additional adoption. The effect of nutrient management payments varies across nutrient management practices and crops. (JEL Q28, Q52)