Land conservation, growth and welfare

This paper identifies the factors, such as leaving land fallow and conservation inputs, for conserving and enhancing soil fertility of land. The growth and welfare effects of these land policies are then examined. Leaving land fallow and conservation inputs raise the equilibrium soil fertility. In the short run, the polices can render unfavorable impacts to the economy, such as decreases in the land supply by the fallow plan, or reductions in public services and falls in private capital formation. Nonetheless, both policies have ambiguous impacts on growth and welfare of the economy in the long run. Furthermore, due to the favorable impact on initial consumption, the welfare-maximizing tax rate or transfer ratio is larger than the one for growth maximization. However, for the land fallow ratio, both rates are the same.