Does Farm Size Matter? Distribution of Crop Insurance Subsidies and Government Program Payments across US Farms

This study uses farm-level information from the ARMS database to evaluate the distribution of payments from major 2014 Farm Bill safety net programs - federal crop insurance, Agricultural Risk Coverage, and Price Loss Coverage - across farm size. Results indicate that farms within the top decile for crop sales receive over two-thirds of the total payments from these programs. Recent legislative proposals to implement payment caps on each farm are shown to impact a relatively small percentage of farms that are almost entirely within the top decile of crop sales. However, implementing these caps is likely to result in as much as $2.51 billion in taxpayer savings. These help provide direction for continued efforts to design cost-effective, equitable agricultural safety net policies.