https://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/pubs/jrnl/2011/nrs_2011_pickett_001.pdf

Urban ecological systems: Scientific foundations and a decade of progress

Environmental regulation and firm exports: Evidence from the eleventh Five-Year Plan in China

The paper applies a non-parametric propensity score matching approach to evaluate the effects of two types of farm programs (agri-environment (AE) programs and the less favoured area (LFA) scheme) on input use and farm output of individual farms in Germany. The analysis reveals a positive and significant treatment effect of the LFA scheme for farm sales and the area under cultivation. Participants in AE schemes are found to significantly increase the area under cultivation (in particular grassland), resulting in a decrease of livestock densities. Furthermore, participation in AE programs significantly reduced the purchase of farm chemicals (fertilizer, pesticide). We also find substantial differences in the treatment effect between individual farms (heterogeneous treatment effects). Farms which can generate the largest benefit from the program are most likely to participate. (authors' abstract)

Evaluating the effects of farm programmes: results from propensity score matching

The digital divide limits opportunities for those without ready access to Internet. Movement online of essential activities during COVID-19 took inadequate Internet service from inconvenient to emergency/crisis for many households. A negative correlation between rurality and Internet speed was found at the county level, highlighting the struggle for rural areas. Schools tackle challenges of providing equitable educational access by attempting to provide access for students, while even households with service available struggle to maintain sufficient speeds and/or can afford it. Essential activities moved online, yet sufficient Internet is an essential public service that remains unattainable for many US households.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/aepp.13104

Revisiting the Digital Divide in the COVID-19 Era.

Rural North America has undergone a major economic transformation over the past century due to labor-saving technological progress, reductions in transport costs, and rising household incomes. The results are greater rural economic diversity, selected rural population decline, increased rural-urban interdependence, emergent exurban areas, and amenity-led rural growth. We summarize key research insights and provide a selected review of the economics literature over the past 100 years with a focus on this economic transformation of rural places, its implications for rural communities, and key modeling innovations and applications. The many important contributions by agricultural economists are highlighted.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/AJAE_AJAEAJAEAAQ008.pdf?abstractid=3569190&mirid=1

A Century of Research on Rural Development and Regional Issues

More than 80 governmental entities concerned about sprawl, open space, and farmland have implemented purchase of development rights (PDR) programs preserving 2.23 million acres at a cost of $5.47 billion. Are PDR programs effective in slowing the rate and acres of farmland loss? Employing propensity score matching methods and a 50-year, 269-county data set for six Mid-Atlantic states, we find empirical evidence that PDR programs have had a statistically significant effect on farmland loss. Having a PDR program decreases a county's rate of farmland loss by 40% to 55% and decreases farmland acres lost by 375 to 550 acres per year.

Do Agricultural Land Preservation Programs Reduce Farmland Loss?: Evidence from a Propensity Score Matching Estimator

sprawl motivated 124 government entities to institute preservation programs at an overall cost of $3.723 billion (American Farmland Trust 2005a, 2005b). In addition, 38 states have implemented land conservation programs for ecological reasons. Critics suggest these programs do not prevent land conversion, do not maximize social benefits, and do not prevent land fragmentation (Pfeffer and Lapping 1995; Daniels and Lapping 2005; Lynch and Musser 2001). Concentrated preservation may provide greater benefits if threshold impacts or economies of scale exist. For example, a critical mass of contiguous farms may be needed due to economies of scale in support industries (Lynch and Carpenter 2003) and to avoid conflicts with non-farm neighbors. Large blocks of undeveloped land may be needed for ecosystem services provision such as wildlife habitat and water quality. Although Maryland has a plethora of land preservation programs, contiguity of preserved parcels has not been achieved. To prioritize contiguity, Maryland introduced the Rural Legacy (RL) program in 1997. The cornerstone of the RL program is to designate RL Areas, which receive special funding to preserve farm, forest, and ecologically important resource lands in a contiguous fashion. The

Impact of Designated Preservation Areas on Rate of Preservation and Rate of Conversion: Preliminary Evidence

Zoning regulations are land use control tools used to conserve resource land, limit negative externalities from high density development, and achieve agglomeration benefits from conserving large blocks of land. However, the passage of low-density zoning is often challenged by landowners who claim that through it, they lose their land’s equity due to lower land values. We investigate whether low-density zoning impacts rural land value using arm’s-length sales in Maryland’s nine Eastern Shore counties. Using both a propensity score matching method and an instrumental variable approach, we find that low-density zoning has differentiated impacts. Resource parcels’ land values are unaffected, and non-resource parcels’ values decrease by 20–50%.

Do Zoning Regulations Rob Rural Landowners' Equity?

We analyze the effects of the interactions that the two pillars of the European Union Common Agricultural Policy—market support and rural development—have on farmers’ uptake of organic farming practices. Special attention is given to the 2003 reform, which substantially altered the relative importance of the two types of support by decoupling direct agricultural payments from the production of a specific crop. In our empirical analysis we study the case of Sweden, making use of the variation in the timing of farmers’ decisions regarding participation in support programs. We estimate a dynamic non-linear unobserved effects probit model to account for unobserved individual heterogeneity and state dependence. Our results indicate the existence of a negative effect of the market support system in place when organic farming techniques were adopted before the 2003 reform. However, this effect is reversed by the introduction of decoupling. Furthermore, the effects of support differ between certified and non-certified organic production: both pillars have significant effects on non-certified organic farming, whereas certified organic farming is exclusively driven by agro-environmental subsidies.

Interactions between CAP Agricultural and Agri-Environmental Subsidies and Their Effects on the Uptake of Organic Farming

We evaluate the impact that the USDA’s low-cost broadband loan programs have on the U.S. agricultural sector. The broadband loan programs increase access to high-speed Internet in recipient communities, which can raise farm sales by increasing both farm output and prices received by producers. Further, high-speed Internet may drive down costs by providing information on cheaper inputs and better management practices, leading to an overall improvement in farm profits. Using U.S. county-level data on farm sales and expenditures in 2000 and 2007, we employ an inverse probability weighting technique to control for endogenous selection in an econometric model that also accounts for spatial dependence. We find that the two USDA broadband loan programs have had positive causal impacts on farm sales, expenditures, and profits in a subset of rural counties—those adjacent to metropolitan counties—but not in other types of counties.

/pdf/the-impact-of-broadband-on-u-s-agriculture-an-evaluation-of-1awe3gocn2.pdf

Xiangping Liu

Papers

Do Agricultural Land Preservation Programs Reduce Farmland Loss?: Evidence from a Propensity Score Matching Estimator

Impact of Designated Preservation Areas on Rate of Preservation and Rate of Conversion: Preliminary Evidence

Do Zoning Regulations Rob Rural Landowners' Equity?

Interactions between CAP Agricultural and Agri-Environmental Subsidies and Their Effects on the Uptake of Organic Farming

The Impact of Broadband on U.S. Agriculture: An Evaluation of the USDA Broadband Loan Program