Maryland has introduced a number of land preservation programs over the past 40 years to permanently preserve resource lands. Although new programs can increase the number of acres being preserved, they might have unintended impact on land preservation due to interaction with existing land...

This paper examines whether permanent farmland preservation programs are capitalized into farmland prices. We consider the landowner's decision to voluntarily participate and correct for sample selection bias in our estimation of sales prices. Initial results suggest development restrictions...

More than 124 governmental entities concerned about suburban sprawl and farmland loss have implemented farmland preservation programs preserving 1.67 million acres at a cost of $3.723 billion. We ask how effective are these programs in slowing the rate of farmland loss. Using a unique 50-year...

This paper examines the impact of having a preservation program on the rate of farmland loss for a 50 year period (1949-1997) in six Mid-Atlantic States: Delaware, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Because farmland loss is affected by changing agricultural...

A two-stage model is used to examine a landowner's decision to use riparian buffers. First, the farmer chooses whether to continue farming or to sell the land for development. If the farmer continues farming, then he or she must decide whether or not to plant a buffer. If the farmer plants a...

This paper studies bidder behavior in an innovative program in which farmers compete to sell their development rights to the State. We derive a reduced form bidding model that includes both private value and common value components. This model allows us to estimate the role of bidder...

Many watershed organizations have prioritized establishing streamside (riparian) buffers on agricultural land to improve water quality. Using data from a 2000 survey of 500 Maryland landowners, we examine what level of financial incentives they would require to install such buffers for 15 years...

For the last 50 years, local, state and the federal governments have expressed concerns about farmland retention. Four benefits have been used to warrant farmland preservation programs: food security and local food supply, viable local agricultural economy, environmental and rural amenities, and...