We study how increases in wealth from the appreciation of U.S. farmland influenced farm proprietor decisions to borrow, buy land, and expand. Exploiting periods of high and low appreciation that caused different increases in wealth for proprietors owning a larger or smaller share of their...

This report estimates the impact that high levels of enrollment in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) have had on economic trends in rural counties since the program's inception in 1985 until today. The results of a growth model and quasi-experimental control group analysis indicate no...

In the last 25 years, U.S. crop farms have steadily declined in number and grown in average size, as production has shifted to larger operations. Larger farms tend to receive more commodity program payments because most payments are tied to a farm’s current or historical production, but...