This volume was prepared by Benedikt Heid while he was working at the ifo Institute and the University of Bayreuth. It was completed in December 2013 and accepted as a doctoral thesis by the Department of Economics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. It includes six self-contained...

Depending on multiple factors and regional characteristics, the area of agricultural land fuctuates with varying scale and speed. These fuctuations generally occur as a result of changes in a way individuals use their land. Human activities, such as agricultural expansion, intensifcation, or...