Browsing by Author "Chen, Zhenshan"

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    Economic Benefits of Agricultural Conservation
    Li, Yanggu (Virginia Tech, 2025-01-07)
    Agricultural conservation provides a variety of public goods in the form of ecosystem services, such as improvement in water quality. The implementation of conservation practices may mitigate climate-related risks. The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), a working agricultural land program in the United States, offers financial and technical support to farmers and ranchers who voluntarily adopt conservation practices. We estimate the economic benefits of EQIP in the rural housing markets of the US. The results suggest that the implementation of agricultural conservation projects increases local housing prices and that the improvement in environmental amenities is mostly capitalized by houses located within 25 miles. We study the effects of EQIP on agricultural production and land value. We find that a 10% increase in EQIP payments made in the previous two years is projected to increase corn yield by 0.03 bushel per acre at the county level in the US. A 10% increase in the previous year's EQIP payments for no-till practices is shown to increase wheat yield by 0.02 bushel per acre and decrease corn yield by 0.02 bushel per acre. We analyze the effects of conservation practices on acreage loss and farm loss. The results indicate that climate-smart payments have statistically significant effects on loss acres and loss cost ratios, such that a 10% increase in the previous year's and previous two years' climate-smart payments would reduce the loss acres of corn by four and seven acres, respectively. Moreover, a 10% increase in the previous year's climate-smart payments would reduce the loss cost ratios of corn by 0.02 percentage point, and the loss cost ratios of soybean by 0.01 percentage point.
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    The Impact of Recreational Homes on Agricultural Land Use
    Towe, Charles; Chen, Zhenshan (2023-02-01)
    When nonresidents purchase agricultural properties, the land use decision can make farmland operate below potential, still allowing for tax credits. We empirically investigate how nonresident ownership affects the agricultural land use decisions in upstate New York. A difference-in-difference matching approach shows a causal link between purchases by nonresidents and a loss of 11% of acreage to a lower-productivity use. A generalization shows this conversion counts for one-seventh of the decreased agricultural land in intensive uses in similar counties. Perhaps a simple opportunistic use of the tax-credit criteria, this phenomenon contradicts the policy’s objective and might impose other consequences on rural communities.
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    Land Use on the Urban Fringe
    Rippley, Samantha (Virginia Tech, 2023-06-30)
    Due to their location on the urban fringe, many historically agricultural counties face development pressure from a spreading urban core. These local communities must contend with often conflicting objectives of providing economic development opportunities while at the same time protecting their county's natural resources. Land conservation policies incentivize landowners to keep land identified as critical environmental resources in their natural state. In this project, we analyze property-level administrative data to evaluate whether land conservation policies and neighbor land use patterns affect the probability of land parcel development. We find some evidence of the contagion effect and that the county's acknowledgment of Priority Conservation areas impacts development motivation.