Trusted Brokers in Rural Land Markets: Parish Case Studies in Scotland

This paper explores how social networks and government institutions work in rural land markets, with a special focus on the role of brokers. For this purpose, insights from New Economic Sociology (NES) and New Institutional Economics (NIE) are combined to build a theoretical framework, and a Social Network Analysis is applied to individual case studies. Specifically, two parishes in Scotland, where dynamic land pattern changes can be observed, were investigated. After the land market network for each parish was identified, the connections between actors were traced followed by in-depth interviews. The paper particularly examines the role of brokers in relation to the information flow and discusses their impacts on transaction costs in rural land markets. Preliminary results highlight the dominant channels in the market, i.e. informal networks with private agents involved, which support the NES position, as well as the work of a government matching scheme which reflects the NIE position. In both cases, the findings show that brokers can contribute to reducing the search and negotiation costs of land transactions through building trustworthy relationships with stakeholders.