IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/lauspo/v90y2020ics026483771930078x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is small family farming more environmentally sustainable? Evidence from a spatial regression discontinuity design in Germany

Author

Listed:
  • Wuepper, David
  • Wimmer, Stefan
  • Sauer, Johannes

Abstract

This article investigates the effect of small family farming on the use of sustainable farming practices in Germany. For causal identification, we employ a fuzzy spatial regression discontinuity design at the historical inner-German border, adjust p-values for multiple hypothesis testing, and compare distinct strategies to classify farms. The results show that small family farming leads to more spatial diversification (more products), but less temporal diversification (more monocultures), more bare soils during winter (fewer cover crops), and less creation or conservation of structural elements (such as hedges, walls, and trees). Thus, our empirical evidence does not support the idea that small family farming is unambiguously more sustainable than its alternatives.

Suggested Citation

  • Wuepper, David & Wimmer, Stefan & Sauer, Johannes, 2020. "Is small family farming more environmentally sustainable? Evidence from a spatial regression discontinuity design in Germany," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:90:y:2020:i:c:s026483771930078x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.104360
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S026483771930078X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.104360?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anderson, Michael L., 2008. "Multiple Inference and Gender Differences in the Effects of Early Intervention: A Reevaluation of the Abecedarian, Perry Preschool, and Early Training Projects," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 103(484), pages 1481-1495.
    2. David S. Lee & Thomas Lemieux, 2010. "Regression Discontinuity Designs in Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(2), pages 281-355, June.
    3. Douglas Gollin & David Lagakos & Michael E. Waugh, 2014. "Agricultural Productivity Differences across Countries," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(5), pages 165-170, May.
    4. Stephen A. Rhoades, 1993. "The Herfindahl-Hirschman index," Federal Reserve Bulletin, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.), issue Mar, pages 188-189.
    5. A. Colin Cameron & Jonah B. Gelbach & Douglas L. Miller, 2011. "Robust Inference With Multiway Clustering," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(2), pages 238-249, April.
    6. David Wuepper & Habtamu Yesigat Ayenew & Johannes Sauer, 2018. "Social Capital, Income Diversification and Climate Change Adaptation: Panel Data Evidence from Rural Ethiopia," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 69(2), pages 458-475, June.
    7. Chabé-Ferret, Sylvain & Subervie, Julie, 2013. "How much green for the buck? Estimating additional and windfall effects of French agro-environmental schemes by DID-matching," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 12-27.
    8. Philip Kostov & Sophia Davidova & Alastair Bailey, 2019. "Comparative Efficiency of Family and Corporate Farms: Does Family Labour Matter?," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 70(1), pages 101-115, February.
    9. Guido Imbens & Karthik Kalyanaraman, 2012. "Optimal Bandwidth Choice for the Regression Discontinuity Estimator," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 79(3), pages 933-959.
    10. Laaser, Claus-Friedrich & Rosenschon, Astrid, 2018. "Kieler Subventionsbericht und die Kieler Subventionsampel: Finanzhilfen des Bundes und Steuervergünstigungen bis 2017 - eine Aktualisierung," Kieler Beiträge zur Wirtschaftspolitik 14, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    11. Andrew Gelman & Guido Imbens, 2019. "Why High-Order Polynomials Should Not Be Used in Regression Discontinuity Designs," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(3), pages 447-456, July.
    12. Campbell, Danny, 2007. "Combining mixed logit models and random effects models to identify the determinants of willingness to pay for rural landscape improvements," 81st Annual Conference, April 2-4, 2007, Reading University, UK 7975, Agricultural Economics Society.
    13. Danny Campbell, 2007. "Willingness to Pay for Rural Landscape Improvements: Combining Mixed Logit and Random‐Effects Models," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(3), pages 467-483, September.
    14. Philip Kostov & Sophia Davidova & Alistair Bailey, 2018. "Effect of family labour on output of farms in selected EU Member States: a non-parametric quantile regression approach," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 45(3), pages 367-395.
    15. Hahn, Jinyong & Todd, Petra & Van der Klaauw, Wilbert, 2001. "Identification and Estimation of Treatment Effects with a Regression-Discontinuity Design," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 69(1), pages 201-209, January.
    16. Lowder, Sarah K. & Skoet, Jakob & Raney, Terri, 2016. "The Number, Size, and Distribution of Farms, Smallholder Farms, and Family Farms Worldwide," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 16-29.
    17. Philippe Le Goffe, 2000. "Hedonic pricing of agriculture and forestry externalities," Post-Print hal-02364341, HAL.
    18. Robert Finger & Scott M. Swinton & Nadja El Benni & Achim Walter, 2019. "Precision Farming at the Nexus of Agricultural Production and the Environment," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 11(1), pages 313-335, October.
    19. Osterburg, Bernhard & Stratmann, Ursula, 2002. "Die regionale Agrarumweltpolitik in Deutschland unter dem Einfluss der Förderangebote der Europäischen Union," German Journal of Agricultural Economics, Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin, Department for Agricultural Economics, vol. 51(05), pages 1-21.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Frederik Noack & Ashley Larsen & Johannes Kamp & Christian Levers, 2022. "A bird's eye view of farm size and biodiversity: The ecological legacy of the iron curtain," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 104(4), pages 1460-1484, August.
    2. Christian Grovermann & Sylvain Quiédeville & Adrian Muller & Florian Leiber & Matthias Stolze & Simon Moakes, 2021. "Does organic certification make economic sense for dairy farmers in Europe?–A latent class counterfactual analysis," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 52(6), pages 1001-1012, November.
    3. David Wuepper & Robert Finger, 2023. "Regression discontinuity designs in agricultural and environmental economics," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 50(1), pages 1-28.
    4. Tereza Pilařová & Steffen Muench & Miroslava Bavorova & Jan Huml, 2023. "Exploring the motivations behind food self-provisioning in the Czech Republic," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 69(6), pages 234-245.
    5. Guzmán, Gloria Isabel & Fernández, David Soto & Aguilera, Eduardo & Infante-Amate, Juan & de Molina, Manuel González, 2022. "The close relationship between biophysical degradation, ecosystem services and family farms decline in Spanish agriculture (1992–2017)," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    6. Marii Rasva & Evelin Jürgenson, 2022. "Europe’s Large-Scale Land Acquisitions and Bibliometric Analysis," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-13, June.
    7. Hemond, Olivia & Butsic, Van & Moanga, Diana & Wartenberg, Ariani C., 2023. "Farm consolidation and turnover dynamics linked to increased crop diversity and higher agricultural input use," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 210(C).
    8. repec:ags:aaea22:335473 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Wuepper, David & Borrelli, Pasquale & Mueller, Daniel & Finger, Robert, 2020. "Quantifying the soil erosion legacy of the Soviet Union," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    10. Meemken, Eva-Marie, 2021. "Large farms, large benefits? Sustainability certification among family farms and agro-industrial producers in Peru," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    11. Marii Rasva & Evelin Jürgenson, 2022. "Agricultural Land Concentration in Estonia and Its Containment Possibilities," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-15, December.
    12. Damm, Yannic Rudá & Börner, Jan & Gerber, Nicolas, 2021. "Health Effects of the Amazon Soy Moratorium," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315401, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    13. Christian Stetter & Philipp Mennig & Johannes Sauer, 2022. "Using Machine Learning to Identify Heterogeneous Impacts of Agri-Environment Schemes in the EU: A Case Study," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 49(4), pages 723-759.
    14. Zahra Ardakani & Fabio Bartolini & Gianluca Brunori, 2020. "New Evaluation of Small Farms: Implication for an Analysis of Food Security," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-15, March.
    15. Brown, Calum & Kovács, Eszter & Herzon, Irina & Villamayor-Tomas, Sergio & Albizua, Amaia & Galanaki, Antonia & Grammatikopoulou, Ioanna & McCracken, Davy & Olsson, Johanna Alkan & Zinngrebe, Yves, 2021. "Simplistic understandings of farmer motivations could undermine the environmental potential of the common agricultural policy," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    16. Zimmert, Franziska & Zorn, Alexander, 2021. "Direct payments and on-farm employment: evidence from a spatial regression discontinuity design," 61st Annual Conference, Berlin, Germany, September 22-24, 2021 317052, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA).
    17. Aliaa Dirani & Gumataw Kifle Abebe & Rachel A. Bahn & Giuliano Martiniello & Isam Bashour, 2021. "Exploring climate change adaptation practices and household food security in the Middle Eastern context: a case of small family farms in Central Bekaa, Lebanon," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 13(4), pages 1029-1047, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yang He & Otávio Bartalotti, 2020. "Wild bootstrap for fuzzy regression discontinuity designs: obtaining robust bias-corrected confidence intervals," The Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 23(2), pages 211-231.
    2. 'Agoston Reguly, 2021. "Heterogeneous Treatment Effects in Regression Discontinuity Designs," Papers 2106.11640, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2021.
    3. Lalive, Rafael & Parrotta, Pierpaolo, 2017. "How does pension eligibility affect labor supply in couples?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 177-188.
    4. Frandsen, Brigham R. & Frölich, Markus & Melly, Blaise, 2012. "Quantile treatment effects in the regression discontinuity design," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 168(2), pages 382-395.
    5. Quaresima Federico & Santolini Raffaella & Fiorillo Fabio, 2020. "Political affiliation in post-parliamentary careers in Italian public enterprises," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 21(1), pages 35-64, April.
    6. Prakash, Nishith & Rockmore, Marc & Uppal, Yogesh, 2019. "Do criminally accused politicians affect economic outcomes? Evidence from India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    7. Christelis, Dimitris & Georgarakos, Dimitris & Sanz-de-Galdeano, Anna, 2020. "The impact of health insurance on stockholding: A regression discontinuity approach," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    8. Christina Korting & Carl Lieberman & Jordan Matsudaira & Zhuan Pei & Yi Shen, 2023. "Visual Inference and Graphical Representation in Regression Discontinuity Designs," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 138(3), pages 1977-2019.
    9. Ari Hyytinen & Jaakko Meriläinen & Tuukka Saarimaa & Otto Toivanen & Janne Tukiainen, 2018. "When does regression discontinuity design work? Evidence from random election outcomes," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 9(2), pages 1019-1051, July.
    10. Mauricio Villamizar‐Villegas & Freddy A. Pinzon‐Puerto & Maria Alejandra Ruiz‐Sanchez, 2022. "A comprehensive history of regression discontinuity designs: An empirical survey of the last 60 years," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(4), pages 1130-1178, September.
    11. Bergolo, M. & Cruces, G., 2021. "The anatomy of behavioral responses to social assistance when informal employment is high," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    12. Guillaume Blanc & Masahiro Kubo, 2023. "French," Economics Discussion Paper Series 2308, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    13. Picarelli, Nathalie, 2019. "There Is No Free House," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 35-52.
    14. Quoc-Anh Do & Yen-Teik Lee & Bang Dang Nguyen, 2016. "Directors as Connectors: The Impact of the External Networks of Directors on Firms," Working Papers hal-03393196, HAL.
    15. Naven, Matthew & Whalen, Daniel, 2022. "The signaling value of university rankings: Evidence from top 14 law schools," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    16. Oh, Byeung-Kuk, 2024. "Retirement and healthcare utilization: Evidence from pension eligibility ages in South Korea," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 27(C).
    17. Cuong Viet Nguyen & Finn Tarp, 2023. "Cash Transfers and Labor Supply: New Evidence on Impacts and Mechanisms," DERG working paper series 23-18, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. Development Economics Research Group (DERG).
    18. Nicholas Barton & Tessa Bold & Justin Sandefur, 2017. "Measuring Rents from Public Employment: Regression Discontinuity Evidence from Kenya - Working Paper 457," Working Papers 457, Center for Global Development.
    19. Matteo Picchio & Jan C. van Ours, 2020. "Mental Health Effects of Retirement," De Economist, Springer, vol. 168(3), pages 419-452, September.
    20. Gray, Daniel & Montagnoli, Alberto & Moro, Mirko, 2021. "Does education improve financial behaviors? Quasi-experimental evidence from Britain," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 481-507.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:90:y:2020:i:c:s026483771930078x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joice Jiang (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/land-use-policy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.