Are “Decoupled” Farm Program Payments Really Decoupled? An Empirical Evaluation
利用农场层面数据评估美国农业补贴（尤其是直接支付）对生产的影响，发现AMTA支付带来的扭曲很小，但市场损失援助支付影响较大。
This analysis utilizes farm‐level data to evaluate the extent to which U.S. farm program benefits, particularly direct payments, bring about distortions in production. The issue is important in WTO negotiations and in the debate over the distortionary effects of decoupled (“green‐box”) payments. Our results suggest that the distortions brought about by AMTA payments, though statistically significant in some cases, are very modest. Larger effects are implied for market loss assistance payments. Probit models suggest that AMTA payments do not influence the likelihood that agents will acquire more land. Our results are reinforced using an aggregate county‐level acreage model.