Assessing the Impact of National Air Quality Standards on Agricultural Land Values: Insights from Corn and Soybean Regions

We examine the impact of the National Ambient Air Quality Stan- dards, as defined by the Clean Air Act, on agricultural land values within the corn and soybean regions of the United States. To achieve this objective, agricultural census data on farmland values are com- bined with pollution exposure metrics as defined by the Environmen- tal Protection Agency. Using a difference-in-differences approach and conducting various robustness checks, we find that compliance with air quality standards has a statistically significant negative effect on agri- cultural land values at the county level. Moreover, evidence from quan- tile regression analysis suggests that counties in the lower quantiles fail to translate the economic and environmental benefits of pollution re- duction into increased farmland values, unlike their counterparts with the highest-valued lands.