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An Evaluation of Working Land and Open Space Preservation Programs in Maryland: Are They Paying Too Much?

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  • Lynch, Lori
  • Gray, Wayne
  • Geoghegan, Jacqueline

Abstract

Farmland preservation programs compensate landowners who enroll for the value lost due to the the restrictions on development applied to their land. These restrictions in principle decrease the value of the land. Yet few studies have found strong statistical evidence that preserved parcels sell for lower prices than unpreserved parcels. We use both a hedonic and a propensity score method to find that preserved parcels sell for 11.4 to 19.8% less than identical unpreserved parcels in Maryland. While significant, a decrease of less than 20% in land value is surprisingly small. If impacts to land value are small, could programs pay landowners less to enroll and thus enroll more land?

Suggested Citation

  • Lynch, Lori & Gray, Wayne & Geoghegan, Jacqueline, 2007. "An Evaluation of Working Land and Open Space Preservation Programs in Maryland: Are They Paying Too Much?," Working Papers 6887, University of Maryland, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:umdrwp:6887
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.6887
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Lori Lynch & Sabrina J. Lovell, 2003. "Combining Spatial and Survey Data to Explain Participation in Agricultural Land reservation Programs," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 79(2), pages 259-276.
    2. Ian W. Hardie & Tulika A. Narayan & Bruce L. Gardner, 2001. "The Joint Influence of Agricultural and Nonfarm Factors on Real Estate Values: An Application to the Mid-Atlantic Region," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 83(1), pages 120-132.
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    6. Lori Lynch & Wayne Gray & Jacqueline Geoghegan, 2007. "Are Farmland Preservation Program Easement Restrictions Capitalized into Farmland Prices? What Can a Propensity Score Matching Analysis Tell Us?," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 29(3), pages 502-509.
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    Cited by:

    1. Schilling, Brian J. & Attavanich, Witsanu & Sullivan, Kevin P. & Marxen, Lucas J., 2014. "Measuring the effect of farmland preservation on farm profitability," MPRA Paper 100122, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Jun 2014.

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