The case of organic dairy conversion in Norway : assessment of multivariate neighbourhood effects

This study examines the impact of neighbourhood effects and individual farm characteristics on the decision process of organic dairy conversion in Norway, using a unique, spatially explicit farm-level panel set comprising information at the population level from 2003 to 2015. Our results reveal a positive spatial spillover of neighbouring conversion, confirming previous findings. Additionally, we demonstrate that neighbouring organic dairy reversion (i.e. switching back to conventional dairy farming) and organic dairy exits (ceasing to farm altogether) exert notable negative spatial spillovers on organic conversion decisions that have not yet been shown in the literature. If organic dairy production is an important policy goal, such negative spatial spillover requires consideration within policy design and extension.