Files
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to provide initial estimates of the impact that government farm credit policies have on the market for farm land. Three specific questions are addressed. How have government farm credit programs influenced (1) farm land prices, (2) farm indebtedness and the (3) the fraction of farm land owned by farmers? The paper is divided into three major sections. First, a theoretical model of the farm land market capable of capturing the effects of interest rate subsidies is developed. The second section presents the results of estimating the model and simulating it under different subsidy regimes.1 The final section summarizes the findings of this paper and raises some questions for further research.