Premium
Assessing the Impact of Financial Incentives in Extension Programmes: Evidence From Ireland
Author(s) -
Läpple Doris,
Hennessy Thia
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.157
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1477-9552
pISSN - 0021-857X
DOI - 10.1111/1477-9552.12108
Subject(s) - incentive , incentive program , extension (predicate logic) , business , matching (statistics) , economics , propensity score matching , public economics , finance , microeconomics , statistics , mathematics , computer science , programming language
We evaluate whether the effectiveness of a participatory extension programme changes when an incentive is introduced that financially rewards farmers for participation. Using data from a dairy farm extension programme operated in I reland, the evaluation assesses whether farmers who joined before the financial incentive was introduced receive larger benefits from the extension programme than farmers who joined after the financial incentive. The results from a propensity score matching analysis reveal that farmers who joined before the incentive significantly improved their farm performance, as measured in gross margins and yields, while farmers who joined after the incentive did not significantly benefit from the extension programme. This implies that the incentive to participate is a windfall gain to these later participants.