IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/aaea06/21097.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Government Payments and Farmland Concentration

Author

Listed:
  • Roberts, Michael J.
  • Key, Nigel D.

Abstract

Over the last twenty five years commodity crop farms have steadily declined in number and grown in average size, and production has shifted to larger operations. During the same period, the share of agricultural payments going to large farms has increased, in large part because payments are tied to actual or historical crop production. This study evaluates whether payments from federal farm programs may have contributed to the concentration of farmland. Using zip code-level data constructed from the micro files of the 1987-2002 Agriculture Censuses the study estimates the association between government payments per acre and subsequent growth in weighted median farmland area. A semi-parametric generalized additive model controls for location and initial concentration levels, and narrows comparisons to nearby zip codes with similar average farm sizes. Findings indicate, both with and without spatial controls, that government payments are strongly associated with subsequent concentration growth.

Suggested Citation

  • Roberts, Michael J. & Key, Nigel D., 2006. "Government Payments and Farmland Concentration," 2006 Annual meeting, July 23-26, Long Beach, CA 21097, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:aaea06:21097
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.21097
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/21097/files/sp06ro02.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.21097?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hubbard, R Glenn & Kashyap, Anil K, 1992. "Internal Net Worth and the Investment Process: An Application to U.S. Agriculture," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(3), pages 506-534, June.
    2. Lawrence E. Shepard & Robert A. Collins, 1982. "Why Do Farmers Fail? Farm Bankruptcies 1910–78," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 64(4), pages 609-615.
    3. Christoph R. Weiss, 1999. "Farm Growth and Survival: Econometric Evidence for Individual Farms in Upper Austria," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 81(1), pages 103-116.
    4. Catherine Paul & Richard Nehring & David Banker & Agapi Somwaru, 2004. "Scale Economies and Efficiency in U.S. Agriculture: Are Traditional Farms History?," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 185-205, November.
    5. Nigel Key & Michael J. Roberts, 2006. "Government Payments and Farm Business Survival," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 88(2), pages 382-392.
    6. John R. Baldwin & Paul K. Gorecki, 1991. "Firm Entry and Exit in the Canadian Manufacturing Sector, 1970-1982," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 24(2), pages 300-323, May.
    7. Kimhi, Ayal & Bollman, Ray, 1999. "Family farm dynamics in Canada and Israel: the case of farm exits," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 21(1), pages 69-79, August.
    8. John R. Baldwin & Paul K. Gorecki, 1990. "Firm Entry and Exit in the Canadian Manufacturing Sector," Working Paper 767, Economics Department, Queen's University.
    9. Jovanovic, Boyan, 1982. "Selection and the Evolution of Industry," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(3), pages 649-670, May.
    10. Claassen, Roger & Breneman, Vincent E. & Bucholtz, Shawn & Cattaneo, Andrea & Johansson, Robert C. & Morehart, Mitchell J., 2004. "Environmental Compliance In U.S. Agricultural Policy: Past Performance And Future Potential," Agricultural Economic Reports 34033, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    11. Paul, Catherine J. Morrison & Nehring, Richard, 2005. "Product diversification, production systems, and economic performance in U.S. agricultural production," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 126(2), pages 525-548, June.
    12. Daniel A. Sumner & James D. Leiby, 1987. "An Econometric Analysis of the Effects of Human Capital on Size and Growth among Dairy Farms," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 69(2), pages 465-470.
    13. Audretsch, David B & Mahmood, Talat, 1995. "New Firm Survival: New Results Using a Hazard Function," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 77(1), pages 97-103, February.
    14. Huffman, Wallace E. & Evenson, Robert E., 2000. "Structural and productivity change in US agriculture, 1950-1982," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 24(2), pages 127-147, January.
    15. Audretsch, David B, 1991. "New-Firm Survival and the Technological Regime," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 73(3), pages 441-450, August.
    16. 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.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Key, Nigel D. & Roberts, Michael J., 2005. "Do Government Payments Influence Farm Business Survival?," 2005 Annual meeting, July 24-27, Providence, RI 19248, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    2. Key, Nigel D. & Roberts, Michael J., 2007. "Commodity Payments, Farm Business Survival, and Farm Size Growth," Economic Research Report 55968, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    3. Dolev, Yuval & Kimhi, Ayal, 2008. "Does Farm Size Really Converge? The Role of Unobserved Farm Efficiency," Discussion Papers 45778, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Department of Agricultural Economics and Management.
    4. Yang, Qing Gong & Temple, Paul, 2012. "Reform and competitive selection in China: An analysis of firm exits," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 286-299.
    5. Yuval Dolev & Ayal Kimhi, 2010. "Do family farms really converge to a uniform size? The role of unobserved farm efficiency ," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 54(1), pages 119-136, January.
    6. Stevenson, Marcie & Artz, Georgeanne, 2017. "Improving rural business development, one firm at a time: A look at the effects of the USDA’s Value-Added Producer Grant on firm survival," 2017 Annual Meeting, February 4-7, 2017, Mobile, Alabama 252785, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    7. Enrico Santarelli & Marco Vivarelli, 2007. "Entrepreneurship and the process of firms’ entry, survival and growth," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press, vol. 16(3), pages 455-488, June.
    8. David Audretsch & Patrick Houweling & A. Thurik, 2000. "Firm Survival in the Netherlands," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 16(1), pages 1-11, February.
    9. Key, Nigel, 2013. "Production Contracts and Farm Business Growth and Survival," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 45(2), pages 277-293, May.
    10. Dolev, Yuval & Kimhi, Ayal, 2006. "Survival And Growth Of Family Farms In Israel: 1971-1995," Discussion Papers 7146, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Department of Agricultural Economics and Management.
    11. Backman, Mikaela & Gabe, Todd & Mellander, Charlotta, 2016. "Effects of Human Capital on the Growth and Survival of Swedish Businesses," Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, Mid-Continent Regional Science Association, vol. 46(1).
    12. Alessandra Colombelli & Jackie Krafft & Marco Vivarelli, 2016. "To be born is not enough: the key role of innovative start-ups," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 47(2), pages 277-291, August.
    13. Marco Vivarelli, 2013. "Is entrepreneurship necessarily good? Microeconomic evidence from developed and developing countries," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 22(6), pages 1453-1495, December.
    14. Manjón-Antolín, Miguel C., 2010. "Firm size and short-term dynamics in aggregate entry and exit," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 28(5), pages 464-476, September.
    15. Doms, Mark & Dunne, Timothy & Roberts, Mark J., 1995. "The role of technology use in the survival and growth of manufacturing plants," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 523-542, December.
    16. Mita Bhattacharya, 2014. "Business Growth, Size and Age: Evidence from the Business Longitudinal Survey (BLS) Data in Australia," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(3-4), pages 129-138, December.
    17. Jan Fałkowski, 2010. "Zmiany liczby gospodarstw rolnych w Polsce w okresie transformacji," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 1-2, pages 89-108.
    18. Raquel Ortega-Argilés & Rosina Moreno, 2005. "Firm Competitive Strategies And The Likelihood Of Survival - The Spanish Case," ERSA conference papers ersa05p347, European Regional Science Association.
    19. Agustí Segarra & Maria Callejón, 2002. "New Firms' Survival and Market Turbulence: New Evidence from Spain," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 20(1), pages 1-14, February.
    20. Josep-Maria Arauzo-Carod & Agustí Segarra-Blasco, 2005. "The Determinants of Entry are not Independent of Start-up Size: Some Evidence from Spanish Manufacturing," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 27(2), pages 147-165, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Agricultural and Food Policy;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:aaea06:21097. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    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 CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc 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 RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaeaaea.html .

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.