Abstract: The inertia of green manure planting behavior of farmers can guarantee the achievement of the government's agricultural environment goals without increasing the government's financial burden. Using the survey data of 1 217 households in the provinces of Hunan, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Anhui and Henan, the influence of the ecological compensation policy on farmers' green manure planting behavioral inertia was analyzed by applying the propensity score matching (PSM) method. Results show that the ecological compensation policy significantly promoted the generation of behavioral inertia. Compared with those who did not receive ecological compensation from the government, the probability of green manure planting behavioral inertia of farmers who received ecological compensation increased by 21.8%. Ecological compensation can stimulate the generation of behavioral inertia through two pathways, one is "ecological compensation→income effect→behavioral inertia", and the other is "ecological compensation→environmental knowledge→behavioral inertia". In addition, the younger, well-educated, large-scale farmers and farmers with high-quality cultivated land are more likely to develop the behavioral inertia. Therefore, on the premise of reshaping the ecological compensation standard and compensation modes as well as fully considering the heterogeneity of farmers' endowment, the idea of constructing the inertia generation mechanism of green manure planting behavior was put forward to promote the sustainability of farmers' behavior.

Key words: green manure planting, behavioral inertia, ecological compensation, southern rice region, propensity score matching (PSM)