Advanced Search
MyIDEAS: Login

Land Leasing And Debt On Farms: Substitutes Or Complements?

Contents:

Author Info

  • Ahrendsen, Bruce L.
  • Bierlen, Ralph W.
  • Langemeier, Larry N.
  • Dixon, Bruce L.
Registered author(s):

    Abstract

    Theoretically, leasing and debt are thought to be substitutes. This assumes that a lease payment, which is a fixed obligation like a loan, displaces debt and reduces debt capacity, i.e., if firms have optimal debt to equity ratios, then, to the extent that it represents "off-balance-sheet" financing, leasing reduces debt capacity. Ang and Peterson-the seminal work in the literature-fit Tobit models with 1976 to 1981 data from 600 firms in which a leasing to book value of equity ratio is the dependent variable and a debt to book value of equity ratio and other variables are the explanatory variables. Contrary to expectations, their model results indicate that leasing and debt are complementary activities. This study follows the Ang and Peterson methodology, but utilizes a set of firms which are distinct from those of earlier studies-non-corporate U.S. commercial farms-to test a land leasing-debt substitution hypothesis. An advantage of the land lease example is that by focusing on a single industry -production agriculture- the problem of potential industry affects is substantially reduced. In a departure from earlier studies, the issue of whether the leasing-debt relation is sensitive to heterogenous firm characteristics and shifting business conditions is examined. OLS leasing models corrected for heteroskedasticity are fit with 1977 through 1992 Kansas farm-level data in which a leasing ratio is the dependent variable and a debt ratio and other explanatory variables serve as independent variables. The models account for fixed time and farm type effects. Results strongly indicate that land leasing and debt are substitutes, albeit not dollar for dollar. A coefficient estimate of about -0.43 on the total asset full sample model indicates that on average, leasing decreases by $0.43 for each dollar of debt incurred. The rate at which farms substitute leasing for debt is sensitive to heterogenous farm characteristics and shifting farm business conditions. The cross-section sample split results offer some evidence that farms which are thought to be a priori more credit constrained substitute debt for leasing at a higher rate than farms which are thought to be a priori less credit constrained. All of the sample split results however, are consistent, with the notion that in order to push the leasing ratio to higher levels, leasing must substitute for debt at increasingly higher levels.

    Download Info

    If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
    File URL: http://purl.umn.edu/21671
    Download Restriction: no

    Bibliographic Info

    Paper provided by American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association) in its series 1999 Annual meeting, August 8-11, Nashville, TN with number 21671.

    as in new window
    Length:
    Date of creation: 1999
    Date of revision:
    Handle: RePEc:ags:aaea99:21671

    Contact details of provider:
    Postal: 555 East Wells Street, Suite 1100, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53202
    Phone: (414) 918-3190
    Fax: (414) 276-3349
    Email:
    Web page: http://www.aaea.org
    More information through EDIRC

    Related research

    Keywords: Agricultural Finance; Land Economics/Use;

    References

    References listed on IDEAS
    Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
    as in new window
    1. Klein, Benjamin & Crawford, Robert G & Alchian, Armen A, 1978. "Vertical Integration, Appropriable Rents, and the Competitive Contracting Process," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 21(2), pages 297-326, October.
    2. Harvey, A C, 1976. "Estimating Regression Models with Multiplicative Heteroscedasticity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 44(3), pages 461-65, May.
    3. Simon Gilchrist & Charles P. Himmelberg, 1995. "Evidence on the Role of Cash Flow for Investment," Working Papers 95-01, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics.
    4. Takeo Hoshi & Anil Kashyap & David Scharfstein, 1989. "Corporate structure, liquidity, and investment: evidence from Japanese industrial groups," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 82, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    5. Steven Fazzari & R. Glenn Hubbard & Bruce C. Petersen, 1988. "Financing Constraints and Corporate Investment," NBER Working Papers 2387, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Peter J. Barry, 1998. "Credit Constraints, Farm Characteristics, and the Farm Economy: Differential Impacts on Feeder Cattle and Beef Cow Inventories," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 80(4), pages 708-723.
    7. Sharpe, Steven A. & Nguyen, Hien H., 1995. "Capital market imperfections and the incentive to lease," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2-3), pages 271-294.
    8. Ralph Bierlen & Allen M. Featherstone, 1998. "Fundamental q, Cash Flow, and Investment: Evidence from Farm Panel Data," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 80(3), pages 427-435, August.
    9. Kevin L. Kliesen & R. Alton Gilbert, 1996. "Are some agricultural banks too agricultural?," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, issue Jan, pages 23-36.
    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 in new window

    Cited by:
    1. Harris, James Michael & Blank, Steven C. & Erickson, Kenneth W. & Hallahan, Charles B., 2010. "Off-farm Income and Investments in Farm Assets: A Double Hurdle Approach," 2010 Annual Meeting, July 25-27, 2010, Denver, Colorado 61531, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

    Lists

    This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:aaea99:21671

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (AgEcon Search).

    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 references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

    If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link 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 profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

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