Estimating the effects of agri-environmental measures using difference-in-difference coarsened exact matching

Abstract

This paper studies the effect of agri-environmental measures (AEMs) in improving greener farming practices. We focus on the quantification of the effectiveness of AEMs implemented in the Rural Development Programme of the Lombardy Region, during the 2007-2013 programming period.Our work attempts to address the well-known potential failures of these kinds of policy instruments such as adverse selection effectsby relying on an innovative matching procedure, coarsened exact matching (CEM). This methodology presents a number of interesting properties that are worth considering in policy-evaluation analyses. Our empirical analysis focuses on three AEM schemes protecting and enhancing the environment, Crops diversification, Grassland maintenance and Organic farming. Overall, our results suggest that AEMs were apparently effective in improving the farms' environmental performances. However, our preliminary cost-benefit analysis highlights that the costs of implementing this policy, when compared to the additional results obtained, tend to be quite large.

Is the Greening Instrument a Valid Precedent for the New Green Architecture of the CAP? The Case of Spain

“…After describing the variables, we estimated and validated the diff-in-diff models. One way of doing the estimations, Y θ = β 0 + β 1 × P + β 2 × T + α × (P × T) + u, is by using ordinary least squares, as in the studies by [15,17].…”

“…However, it is complicated to measure the total effect of Greening, because some of its measures may be combined with other environmental measures under the rural development pillar or conditionality. For this reason, this study uses diff-in-diff estimation because it allows us to gauge the effects of a new measure, Greening, even if it partially includes some practices from the previous programming period [15,16].…”

Spatial Targeting of Agricultural Support Measures: Indicator-Based Assessment of Coverages and Leakages

“…Such site-level experimental approaches constitute the greatest share of ex-post assessment of the environmental effects of AEM. The spatiotemporal limitations associated with these approaches often result in a general lack of understanding of targeting effects on larger-scale processes [9]. Additional challenges to assessing larger-scale processes include the high costs of monitoring and measurement and the lack of linearity and immediacy of AEM effects [96].…”

“…Generally, findings show that better targeting of agri-environmental support leads to more effective and cost-efficient policy [2,3], so long as transaction costs are low [4] or are offset by enhanced provision of services [5]. Studies of targeting effectiveness tend to examine single support measures [6] and provide insights into specific policy actions and outcomes (i.e., levels of farmer participation, promotion of green farming practices, provision of ecosystem services, rural development, and equity) [7][8][9][10][11][12]. Few studies focus on the initial distributional aspects of targeting and if the distribution of support actually reflects program rules and stated priorities.…”

Cash Incentives to Mothers or to Community Health Workers - What Contributes Better to the Health of the Mother and the Newborn? Evidence From India

“…Finally, this paper adds to the growing number of empirical studies that incorporate coarsened exact matching technique along with difference-in-difference in their methodologies, e.g. (Rellstab et al, 2020;Bertoni et al, 2020).…”