Counterfactual evaluation of two Austrian agri‐environmental schemes in 2014–2018
Abstract This article investigates the causal effect of farm participation in two Austrian agri‐environmental schemes (AES), Immergrün ( ground cover ) and Zwischenfrucht ( catch cropping ), on fertilizer and plant protection expenditures in the 2014 programming period. Combining European Farm Accou...
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crwiley:10.1111/agec.12805 2024-06-02T08:05:48+00:00 Counterfactual evaluation of two Austrian agri‐environmental schemes in 2014–2018 Uehleke, Reinhard Leonhardt, Heidi Hüttel, Silke 2023 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/agec.12805 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/agec.12805 en eng Wiley http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Agricultural Economics volume 55, issue 1, page 27-40 ISSN 0169-5150 1574-0862 journal-article 2023 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.12805 2024-05-03T10:42:11Z Abstract This article investigates the causal effect of farm participation in two Austrian agri‐environmental schemes (AES), Immergrün ( ground cover ) and Zwischenfrucht ( catch cropping ), on fertilizer and plant protection expenditures in the 2014 programming period. Combining European Farm Accountancy Data Network data with information on scheme participation from administrative control data offers identifying farm participation in specific schemes targeted at reducing input intensity. Given the overall small sample, we maximized the utilizable sample size by combining difference‐in‐difference and kernel matching with automated bandwidth selection. To address the remaining post‐matching covariate imbalances, we used double machine learning (DML) techniques for a guided selection of potential confounding covariates. Our results suggest that, given the available sample, we cannot substantiate moderate effects of AES participation, and that guided covariate selection by DML offers no gain over non‐guided covariate selection for the small sample. Our results underline the need to increase the number of farms and the duration in available farm panels to substantiate future counterfactual‐based evaluations of policy. Article in Journal/Newspaper DML Wiley Online Library Agricultural Economics |
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Wiley Online Library |
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English |
description |
Abstract This article investigates the causal effect of farm participation in two Austrian agri‐environmental schemes (AES), Immergrün ( ground cover ) and Zwischenfrucht ( catch cropping ), on fertilizer and plant protection expenditures in the 2014 programming period. Combining European Farm Accountancy Data Network data with information on scheme participation from administrative control data offers identifying farm participation in specific schemes targeted at reducing input intensity. Given the overall small sample, we maximized the utilizable sample size by combining difference‐in‐difference and kernel matching with automated bandwidth selection. To address the remaining post‐matching covariate imbalances, we used double machine learning (DML) techniques for a guided selection of potential confounding covariates. Our results suggest that, given the available sample, we cannot substantiate moderate effects of AES participation, and that guided covariate selection by DML offers no gain over non‐guided covariate selection for the small sample. Our results underline the need to increase the number of farms and the duration in available farm panels to substantiate future counterfactual‐based evaluations of policy. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Uehleke, Reinhard Leonhardt, Heidi Hüttel, Silke |
spellingShingle |
Uehleke, Reinhard Leonhardt, Heidi Hüttel, Silke Counterfactual evaluation of two Austrian agri‐environmental schemes in 2014–2018 |
author_facet |
Uehleke, Reinhard Leonhardt, Heidi Hüttel, Silke |
author_sort |
Uehleke, Reinhard |
title |
Counterfactual evaluation of two Austrian agri‐environmental schemes in 2014–2018 |
title_short |
Counterfactual evaluation of two Austrian agri‐environmental schemes in 2014–2018 |
title_full |
Counterfactual evaluation of two Austrian agri‐environmental schemes in 2014–2018 |
title_fullStr |
Counterfactual evaluation of two Austrian agri‐environmental schemes in 2014–2018 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Counterfactual evaluation of two Austrian agri‐environmental schemes in 2014–2018 |
title_sort |
counterfactual evaluation of two austrian agri‐environmental schemes in 2014–2018 |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/agec.12805 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/agec.12805 |
genre |
DML |
genre_facet |
DML |
op_source |
Agricultural Economics volume 55, issue 1, page 27-40 ISSN 0169-5150 1574-0862 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.12805 |
container_title |
Agricultural Economics |
_version_ |
1800750679622418432 |