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Abstract
Nitrate leached from agricultural fertilizer has created a host of environmental problems (Tilman et al. 2002). Improving nitrogen management can decrease its harmful effects on the environment (Socolow 1999). However, behavioral change rarely takes place automatically. Interventions are necessary to induce or require polluters to internalize the cost of pollution (Shortle and Horan 2017). Various instruments have been considered such as taxes on chemical fertilizer, subsidies for conservation practices, and regulatory restrictions to reduce the over-use of nitrogen. Some of these interventions can be expensive and have been increasingly criticized as inefficient or ineffective due to the one-size-fits-all approach to achieve the specified goals (Ribaudo 2011). With the assistance of spatially explicit data that identify the locations with the greatest potential for reducing nitrate leaching at least cost, targeted policy measures may substantially improve the cost-effectiveness of abatement efforts (Konrad et al. 2014). This paper aims to assess the impacts of a variety of such policy measures on agriculture in the U.S.