3. Results
I begin by reporting descriptive evidence. Fig. 1 shows a clear jump in sugar beet productivity in the aftermath of the sugar cartel’s failure that is not mirrored by corn productivity. This observation is supported by the formal estimation results in Table 2. In column 1 of Table 2 the average treatment effect on the treated (ATT) is estimated to be 3.64 tons per acre. This effect is both economically and statistically significant, equating to a 24% increase on pre-treatment average industry productivity. The sugar beet dummy coefficient indicates that a planted acre produces approximately 12 tons more sugar beet than corn, while the coefficient on the treatment dummy shows that yield per acre increased by only a modest amount within the control group post 1974. In addition, the acres planted variable is insignificant suggesting an absence of economies of scale