Urban Sprawl and Farmland Prices

• DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8276.2006.00906.x
• Publication Date: 2006-10-14T13:03:31Z
• Authors: Grigorios Livanis; Charles B. Moss; Vincent E. Breneman; Richard F. Nehring
• Keywords: Urban sprawl; Agricultural land

A theoretical model of farmland valuation is developed to explicitly account for three effects urban sprawl: conversion uses, effect on agricultural returns, and speculative as represented by risk. This estimated using county‐level data in the continental United States. Evidence found all sprawl values. Counties more accessible major centers have higher net returns. Subsidiary evidence supports that latter may be attributed survival (or to) high‐valued agriculture around centers.