IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/aaea26/404339.html

State-Led Land Acquisition and Farmland Prices

Author

Listed:
  • Kunwar, Binayak
  • Fiechter, Chad
  • Shew, Aaron
  • Tchuente, Guy

Abstract

This paper examines how state-led land acquisitions for industrial development affect farmland markets, focusing on the Indiana Economic Development Corporation’s (IEDC) purchase of farmland for the LEAP Innovation and Research District in Boone County, Indiana. Using transaction-level data from 2016–2024 and difference in- differences and event-study designs, we estimate both localized and spillover price effects. Farmland prices in Boone County increased by 40–58 percent, while neighboring counties experienced spillovers of about 7 percent. Local effects persist, whereas spillovers emerge with a lag and gradually dissipate. These results have implications for land-use planning, agricultural expansion, and rural equity.

Suggested Citation

  • Kunwar, Binayak & Fiechter, Chad & Shew, Aaron & Tchuente, Guy, 2026. "State-Led Land Acquisition and Farmland Prices," 2026 Annual Meeting, July 26 - 28, 2026, Kansas City, Missouri 404339, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:aaea26:404339
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.404339
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/404339/files/177460_198608_115232_iedc_aaea_paper.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.404339?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. Allison Borchers & Jennifer Ifft & Todd Kuethe, 2014. "Linking the Price of Agricultural Land to Use Values and Amenities," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 96(5), pages 1307-1320.
    2. Benoît A. Delbecq & Todd H. Kuethe & Allison M. Borchers, 2014. "Identifying the Extent of the Urban Fringe and Its Impact on Agricultural Land Values," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 90(4), pages 587-600.
    3. David A. King & J. A. Sinden, 1994. "Price Formation in Farm Land Markets," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 70(1), pages 38-52.
    4. Geerte Cotteleer & Cornelis Gardebroek & Jan Luijt, 2008. "Market Power in a GIS-Based Hedonic Price Model of Local Farmland Markets," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 84(4), pages 573-592.
    5. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2009. "Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 8769, December.
    6. Gary Solon & Steven J. Haider & Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2015. "What Are We Weighting For?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 50(2), pages 301-316.
    7. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "How Much Should We Trust Differences-In-Differences Estimates?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 249-275.
    8. John P. Harding & Stuart S. Rosenthal & C. F. Sirmans, 2003. "Estimating Bargaining Power in the Market for Existing Homes," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(1), pages 178-188, February.
    9. Yue Jin Shi & Timothy T. Phipps & Dale Colyer, 1997. "Agricultural Land Values under Urbanizing Influences," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 73(1), pages 90-100.
    10. Nino Abashidze & Laura O. Taylor, 2023. "Utility-Scale Solar Farms and Agricultural Land Values," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 99(3), pages 327-342.
    11. Kuethe, Todd H. & Ifft, Jennifer & Morehart, Mitchell J., 2011. "The Influence Of Urban Areas On Farmland Values," Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resource Issues, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 26(2), pages 1-7.
    12. Karl E. Case & Robert J. Shiller, 1987. "Prices of single-family homes since 1970: new indexes for four cities," New England Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, issue Sep, pages 45-56.
    13. Cynthia J. Nickerson & Lori Lynch, 2001. "The Effect of Farmland Preservation Programs on Farmland Prices," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 83(2), pages 341-351.
    14. Benoît A. Delbecq & Todd H. Kuethe & Allison M. Borchers, 2014. "Identifying the Extent of the Urban Fringe and Its Impact on Agricultural Land Values," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 90(4), pages 587-600.
    15. Meyer, Bruce D, 1995. "Natural and Quasi-experiments in Economics," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 13(2), pages 151-161, April.
    16. Sun, Liyang & Abraham, Sarah, 2021. "Estimating dynamic treatment effects in event studies with heterogeneous treatment effects," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 175-199.
    17. Burns, Christopher & Key, Nigel & Tulman, Sarah & Borchers, Allison & Weber, Jeremy, 2018. "Farmland Values, Land Ownership, and Returns to Farmland, 2000-2016," Economic Research Report 276249, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    18. Amihud, Yakov, 2002. "Illiquidity and stock returns: cross-section and time-series effects," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 31-56, January.
    19. Nickerson, Cynthia & Morehart, Mitchell & Kuethe, Todd & Beckman, Jayson & Ifft, Jennifer & Williams, Ryan, 2012. "Trends in U.S. Farmland Values and Ownership," Economic Information Bulletin 291935, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    20. Xiaoguang Feng & Dermot J. Hayes, 2020. "Farmland Investment Characteristics from a Forward-Looking Perspective: An Explanation for the “High Return/Low Risk” Paradox," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 96(2), pages 291-303.
    21. Charles B. Moss, 1997. "Returns, Interest Rates, and Inflation: How They Explain Changes in Farmland Values," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 79(4), pages 1311-1318.
    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. Cécile Couharde & Rémi Generoso, 2026. "Clearing the Air: How Fine Particulate Matter Regulations Reshape Farmland Values in U.S. Corn and Soybean Regions," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 77(2), pages 322-355, June.
    2. Goodman-Bacon, Andrew, 2021. "Difference-in-differences with variation in treatment timing," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 254-277.
    3. Fiechter, Chad M. & Kuethe, Todd H. & Zhang, Wendong, 2022. "Information Rigidities in Farmland Value Expectations," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322070, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    4. Stefan Seifert & Christoph Kahle & Silke Hüttel, 2021. "Price Dispersion in Farmland Markets: What Is the Role of Asymmetric Information?," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 103(4), pages 1545-1568, August.
    5. Kuethe, Todd H. & Bigelow, Daniel P., "undated". "Bargaining Power in Farmland Rental Markets," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 274113, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    6. Vasco Capela Tavares & Fernando Tavares & Eulália Santos, 2022. "The Value of Farmland and Its Determinants—The Current State of the Art," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-14, October.
    7. Roth, Jonathan & Sant’Anna, Pedro H.C. & Bilinski, Alyssa & Poe, John, 2023. "What’s trending in difference-in-differences? A synthesis of the recent econometrics literature," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 235(2), pages 2218-2244.
    8. Sant’Anna, Pedro H.C. & Zhao, Jun, 2020. "Doubly robust difference-in-differences estimators," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 219(1), pages 101-122.
    9. Brady P. Horn & Johanna Catherine Maclean & Michael R. Strain, 2017. "Do Minimum Wage Increases Influence Worker Health?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 55(4), pages 1986-2007, October.
    10. Abouk, Rahi & Jalali, Nima & Papatla, Purushottam, 2024. "Can tweets be word of mouth that changes risky behaviors?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    11. Roxanne Kovacs & Maurice Dunaiski & Janne Tukiainen, 2020. "Compulsory face mask policies do not affect community mobility in Germany," Discussion Papers 136, Aboa Centre for Economics.
    12. Friederike Lehn & Enno Bahrs, 2018. "Land-Use Competition or Compatibility between Nature Conservation and Agriculture? The Impact of Protected Areas on German Standard Farmland Values," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-20, April.
    13. A. Colin Cameron & Douglas L. Miller, 2015. "A Practitioner’s Guide to Cluster-Robust Inference," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 50(2), pages 317-372.
    14. Maclean, J. Catherine & Pichler, Stefan & Ziebarth, Nicolas R., 2020. "Mandated Sick Pay: Coverage, Utilization, and Welfare Effects," IZA Discussion Papers 13132, IZA Network @ LISER.
    15. Lehn, Friederike & Bahrs, Enno, 2018. "Analysis of factors influencing standard farmland values with regard to stronger interventions in the German farmland market," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 138-146.
    16. de Araújo, Jevuks Matheus & Alves, Pedro Jorge Holanda & Melo, Ana Karolina Acris & de Aguiar, Margaria Noélia & Eufrosino, Rômulo, 2025. "Evaluating the impacts of the Brazilian model for military public schools," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    17. Johanna Catherine Maclean & Michael F. Pesko & Steven C. Hill, 2017. "The Effect of Insurance Expansions on Smoking Cessation Medication Prescriptions: Evidence from ACA Medicaid Expansions," NBER Working Papers 23450, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Dominika Langenmayr & Mikayel Tovmasyan & Sebastian Vosseler, 2025. "Bypassing Sanctions: Hide 'N Seek in Tax Havens?," Working Papers 202536, Center for Global Policy Analysis, LeBow College of Business, Drexel University.
    19. Johanna Catherine Maclean & Brady P. Horn & Jonathan H. Cantor, 2020. "Business Cycles And Admissions To Substance Abuse Treatment," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 38(1), pages 139-154, January.
    20. Lutfah Ariana & Rimawan Pradiptyo & Evi Noor Afifah, 2026. "Assessing the impact of public–private partnership adoption on regional economic growth in Asia," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 1-26, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:aaea26:404339. 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.