Farmers in the United States produce a wide variety of commodities for food and fiber. Farmers can also produce a variety of non-commodity ecosystem services for which markets do not exist or are imperfectly formed. Such services may be valued by society, but due to their nature or institutional...

This paper examines the preservation of farmland through purchasable development rights. In a comparison of the estimated costs and benefits associated with the development of open space from 1982 to 1992, we show that these programs may provide a net benefit to society. An econometric model is...