We investigate the effects of forest conservation requirements and zoning on the value of land undergoing subdivision. Land prices are increasing in the percentage of subdivision acreage developers are required to keep in forest, suggesting that forest conservation regulations increase the...

The Environmental Benefits Index (EBI) ranks Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) offers by weighing program costs for enrolling land in CRP against six environmental objectives. This paper uses Monte Carlo simulations to analyze the sensitivity of CRP enrollment outcome to the specification of...

Can a single program support farm income and encourage producers to adopt environmentally sound farming practices? While simple in concept, attempting to roll the farm income support features of existing commodity programs and conservation payments into a single program raises questions. Exactly...

Using a panel of parcel-level data we estimate a hazard model and find strong evidence that the mere existence of an option to preserve farmland delays decisions to convert farmland to developed uses by about six years, a reduction in median conversion time of 12 to 43% depending on parcel size....

This paper examines whether purchase of development right (PDR) programs slow the rate of farmland conversion or shift land and amenity losses to adjacent areas. We use county-level data from several Northeastern states with existing PDR programs to estimate the probability that farmland is...

Government agencies in urbanizing areas are increasingly utilizing purchase and transfer of development rights programs to preserve farmland and protect local farm economies. This article tests the effect of development restrictions imposed by permanent easement sales on farmland sales prices,...