Estimating the Effect of the Chesapeake Bay Program on Application Rates for Enrollment in the Environmental Quality Incentive Program: A Case Study of Pennsylvania

This paper is an evaluation of the Chesapeake Bay Program's (CBP) effect on farmers' willingness to participate in USDA agricultural conservation programs. Willingness to participate is demonstrated by submission of an application for enrollment in a conservation program. The estimation method is propensity score matching. Matching is one method which can be used to estimate treatment effects using observational studies when a control group is not available for purposes of comparing outcomes with treatment and without treatment.