IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/uwp/landec/v91y2015i2p344-361.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Leveraging Wealth from Farmland Appreciation: Borrowing, Land Ownership, and Farm Expansion

Author

Listed:
  • Jeremy G. Weber
  • Nigel Key

Abstract

We study how increases in wealth from rapid appreciation of farmland influenced farmer decisions to borrow, buy land, and expand. Exploiting periods of high and low appreciation and a panel data model that allows for correlation between prior growth trends and the share of land owned, we find that a dollar increase in paper wealth led younger farmers to increase real-estate-secured borrowing by 48 cents. Land purchases accompanied the increase in borrowing, supporting the view that collateral-based lending may be contributing to the recent runup in farmland prices. We find no effect of land wealth on production or acres harvested.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeremy G. Weber & Nigel Key, 2015. "Leveraging Wealth from Farmland Appreciation: Borrowing, Land Ownership, and Farm Expansion," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 91(2), pages 344-361.
    • Handle: RePEc:uwp:landec:v:91:y:2015:i:2:p:344-361
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://le.uwpress.org/cgi/reprint/91/2/344
    Download Restriction: A subscripton is required to access pdf files. Pay per article is available.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Holtz-Eakin, Douglas & Joulfaian, David & Rosen, Harvey S, 1994. "Sticking It Out: Entrepreneurial Survival and Liquidity Constraints," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(1), pages 53-75, February.
    2. Richard Disney & Sarah Bridges & John Gathergood, 2010. "House Price Shocks and Household Indebtedness in the United Kingdom," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 77(307), pages 472-496, July.
    3. Campbell, John Y. & Cocco, Joao F., 2007. "How do house prices affect consumption? Evidence from micro data," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 591-621, April.
    4. Stam, Jerome M. & Dixon, Bruce L., 2004. "Farmer Bankruptcies And Farm Exits In The United States, 1899-2002," Agricultural Information Bulletins 33689, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    5. Hoppe, Robert A. & Banker, David E., 2010. "Structure and Finances of U.S. Farms: Family Farm Report, 2010 Edition," Economic Information Bulletin 291950, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    6. Robert W. Fairlie & Harry A. Krashinsky, 2012. "Liquidity Constraints, Household Wealth, And Entrepreneurship Revisited," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 58(2), pages 279-306, June.
    7. Erik Hurst & Annamaria Lusardi, 2004. "Liquidity Constraints, Household Wealth, and Entrepreneurship," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(2), pages 319-347, April.
    8. Atif Mian & Amir Sufi, 2011. "House Prices, Home Equity-Based Borrowing, and the US Household Leverage Crisis," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(5), pages 2132-2156, August.
    9. Barry Falk, 1991. "Formally Testing the Present Value Model of Farmland Prices," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 73(1), pages 1-10.
    10. Raghuram Rajan & Rodney Ramcharan, 2015. "The Anatomy of a Credit Crisis: The Boom and Bust in Farm Land Prices in the United States in the 1920s," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(4), pages 1439-1477, April.
    11. Richard Disney & John Gathergood & Andrew Henley, 2010. "House Price Shocks, Negative Equity, and Household Consumption in the United Kingdom," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 8(6), pages 1179-1207, December.
    12. Michael R. Carter & Pedro Olinto, 2003. "Getting Institutions “Right” for Whom? Credit Constraints and the Impact of Property Rights on the Quantity and Composition of Investment," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 85(1), pages 173-186.
    13. Eric Van Tassel, 2004. "Credit access and transferable land rights," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 56(1), pages 151-166, January.
    14. Ahearn, Mary Clare & Newton, Doris J., 2009. "Beginning Farmers and Ranchers," Economic Information Bulletin 58618, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    15. Falk, Barry L., 1991. "Formally Testing the Present Value Model of Farmland Prices," Staff General Research Papers Archive 11093, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    16. Adrian, Tobias & Shin, Hyun Song, 2010. "Liquidity and leverage," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 418-437, July.
    17. Stein Holden & Hailu Yohannes, 2002. "Land Redistribution, Tenure Insecurity, and Intensity of Production: A Study of Farm Households in Southern Ethiopia," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 78(4), pages 573-590.
    18. J. DeBoer-Lowenberg & Michael Boehlje, 1986. "The Impact of Farmland Price Changes on Farm Size and Financial Structure," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 68(4), pages 838-848.
    19. Vincenzo Quadrini, 1999. "The Importance Of Entrepreneurship For Wealth Concentration And Mobility," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 45(1), pages 1-19, March.
    20. Ifft, Jennifer, 2014. "Farmland Markets and Farm Business Finances," Agricultural Outlook Forum 2014 168413, United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Outlook Forum.
    21. H. Frederick Gale, 1994. "Longitudinal Analysis of Farm Size over the Farmer's Life Cycle," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 16(1), pages 113-123.
    22. David A. Benson & Eric French, 2011. "How do sudden large losses in wealth affect labor force participation?," Chicago Fed Letter, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, issue Jan.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Stefan Seifert & Silke Hüttel, 2023. "Is there a risk of a winner’s curse in farmland auctions?," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 50(3), pages 1140-1177.
    2. Fiechter, Chad & Kuethe, Todd, 2021. "Agricultural Lenders and Farmland Appraisers Disagreement on Farmland Value Expectations," 2021 Agricultural and Rural Finance Markets in Transition (Virtual Meeting), October 6-7, 2021 316031, Regional Research Committee NC-1177 (formerly NC-1014): Agricultural and Rural Finance Markets in Transition.
    3. Fiechter, Chad & Kuethe, Todd & Zhang, Wendong, 2023. "Information Rigidities and Farmland Value Expectations," ISU General Staff Papers 202306131414240000, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    4. Seifert, Stefan & Hüttel, Silke, 2020. "Common values and unobserved heterogeneity in farmland auctions in Germany," FORLand Working Papers 21 (2020), Humboldt University Berlin, DFG Research Unit 2569 FORLand "Agricultural Land Markets – Efficiency and Regulation".
    5. Lars Isenhardt & Stefan Seifert & Silke Hüttel, 2023. "Tenant Favoritism and Right of First Refusals in Farmland Auctions: Competition and Price Effects," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 99(2), pages 302-324.
    6. Jauernig, Johanna & Brosig, Stephan & Hüttel, Silke, 2023. "Profession and residency matter: Farmers' preferences for farmland price regulation in Germany," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 74(3), pages 816-834.
    7. Jason Brown & Timothy Fitzgerald & Jeremy G. Weber, 2016. "Asset Ownership, Windfalls, and Income: Evidence from Oil and Gas Royalties," Research Working Paper RWP 16-12, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
    8. Prager, Daniel & Tulman, Sarah & Durst, Ron, 2017. "How do tax loss benefits and asset appreciation affect the returns to farming for U.S. farm households?," 2018 Allied Social Sciences Association (ASSA) Annual Meeting, January 5-7, 2018, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 266304, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    9. Ar. R. T. Hidayat & Corinthias P. M. Sianipar & Shizuka Hashimoto & Satoshi Hoshino & Muhammad Dimyati & Ahmad E. Yustika, 2023. "Personal Cognition and Implicit Constructs Affecting Preferential Decisions on Farmland Ownership: Multiple Case Studies in Kediri, East Java, Indonesia," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-23, September.
    10. Mengjie Tian & Mingyong Hong & Ji Wang, 2023. "Land resources, market-oriented reform and high-quality agricultural development," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 56(6), pages 4165-4197, December.
    11. Fiechter, Chad M. & Kuethe, Todd H. & Zhang, Wendong, 2022. "Information Rigidities in Farmland Value Expectations," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322070, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    12. repec:ags:aaea22:335505 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Kapinos, Pavel & Gurley-Calvez, Tami & Kapinos, Kandice, 2016. "(Un)expected housing price changes: Identifying the drivers of small business finance," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 79-94.
    14. Burns, Christopher & Tulman, Sarah & Harris, J. Michael, 2015. "Farm Financial Stress in a Changing Economic Environment: Simulating Credit Risk with New Imputed ARMS Data on Farm Debt," 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California 205295, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    15. Yifei Wu & Jeffrey H. Dorfman & Brady E. Brewer, 2021. "The susceptibility of farmland loans to default under falling farmland and commodity prices," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 52(4), pages 561-574, July.
    16. B. James Deaton & Chad Lawley, 2022. "A survey of literature examining farmland prices: A Canadian focus," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 70(2), pages 95-121, June.
    17. Burns, Christopher & Key, Nigel & Tulman, Sarah & Borchers, Allison & Weber, Jeremy, 2018. "Farmland Values, Land Ownership, and Returns to Farmland, 2000-2016," Economic Research Report 276249, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    18. Peng, Y. & Turvey, C. & Kong, R., 2018. "An Analysis of China s Reforms on Mortgaging and Transacting Rural Land Use Rights and Entrepreneurial Activity," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277308, International Association of Agricultural Economists.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Weber, Jeremy G. & Key, Nigel D., 2013. "Does proprietor wealth influence small business decisions? Land appreciation and farm business borrowing, land ownership, and output," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 150408, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    2. Jeremy G. Weber & Nigel Key, 2014. "Do Wealth Gains from Land Appreciation Cause Farmers to Expand Acreage or Buy Land?," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 96(5), pages 1334-1348.
    3. Richard Disney & John Gathergood, 2018. "House Prices, Wealth Effects and Labour Supply," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 85(339), pages 449-478, July.
    4. Kerr, Sari Pekkala & Kerr, William R. & Nanda, Ramana, 2022. "House prices, home equity and entrepreneurship: Evidence from U.S. census micro data," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 103-119.
    5. Adelino, Manuel & Schoar, Antoinette & Severino, Felipe, 2015. "House prices, collateral, and self-employment," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(2), pages 288-306.
    6. Roxana Gutiérrez-Romero & Luciana Méndez-Errico, 2017. "Does Inequality Foster or Hinder the Growth of Entrepreneurship in the Long Run?," Research on Economic Inequality, in: Research on Economic Inequality, volume 25, pages 299-341, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    7. Crossley, Thomas F. & Levell, Peter & Low, Hamish, 2024. "House price rises and borrowing to invest," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 223(C), pages 86-105.
    8. Mairead Roiste & Apostolos Fasianos & Robert Kirkby & Fang Yao, 2021. "Are Housing Wealth Effects Asymmetric in Booms and Busts?," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 62(4), pages 578-628, May.
    9. Suari-Andreu, Eduard, 2021. "Housing and household consumption: An investigation of the wealth and collateral effects," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    10. Bracke, Philippe & Hilber, Christian A.L. & Silva, Olmo, 2018. "Mortgage debt and entrepreneurship," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 52-66.
    11. B. James Deaton & Chad Lawley, 2022. "A survey of literature examining farmland prices: A Canadian focus," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 70(2), pages 95-121, June.
    12. William Elming & Andreas Ermler, 2016. "Housing equity, saving and debt dynamics over the Great Recession," IFS Working Papers W16/12, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    13. Jason P. Brown, 2021. "Response of Consumer Debt to Income Shocks: The Case of Energy Booms and Busts," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 53(7), pages 1629-1675, October.
    14. Kartik Athreya & Ahmet Akyol, 2007. "Unsecured Credit and Self-Employment," 2007 Meeting Papers 49, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    15. Popov, Alexander & Corradin, Stefano, 2013. "House prices, home equity and entrepreneurships," Working Paper Series 1544, European Central Bank.
    16. Silvia Magri, 2009. "The financing of small entrepreneurs in Italy," Annals of Finance, Springer, vol. 5(3), pages 397-419, June.
    17. Paul A. Coomes & Jose Fernandez & Stephan F. Gohmann, 2013. "The Rate of Proprietorship Among Metropolitan Areas: The Impact of the Local Economic Environment and Capital Resources," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 37(4), pages 745-770, July.
    18. Philippe Bracke & Christian Hilber & Olmo Silva, 2014. "Homeownership and Entrepreneurship: The Role of Mortgage Debt and Commitment," CESifo Working Paper Series 5048, CESifo.
    19. Clemens, Christiane & Heinemann, Maik, 2010. "On entrepreneurial risk-taking and the macroeconomic effects of financial constraints," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 34(9), pages 1610-1626, September.
    20. Elitcha Koffi & Fonseca Raquel, 2018. "Self–Employment, Wealth and Start–up Costs: Evidence from a Financial Crisis," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 18(3), pages 1-28, July.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • Q15 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Land Ownership and Tenure; Land Reform; Land Use; Irrigation; Agriculture and Environment
    • R14 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Land Use Patterns

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:uwp:landec:v:91:y:2015:i:2:p:344-361. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://le.uwpress.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.