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Direct Payments, Cash Rents, Land Values, and the Effects of Imputation in U.S. Farm-level Data

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2016

Michael W. Robbins  and
T. Kirk White
Michael W. Robbins
Affiliation:
RAND Corporation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
T. Kirk White*
Affiliation:
U.S. Census Bureau's Center for Economic Studies
*
Correspondence: T. Kirk White ▪ Center for Economic Studies ▪ 4600 Silver Hill Road ▪ Washington, DC 20233 ▪ Phone 301.763.1879 ▪ Emailthomas.kirk.white@census.gov.
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Abstract

Research using the Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS) and other data shows that direct government payments to farmers increase rents and the price of land. However, some ARMS data is imputed and does not account for relationships between payments and other variables. We investigate various imputation methods and benefits gained from a method with a wide scope rather than a parsimonious range of variables. Using our method, we estimate that an additional dollar of direct payment increases land value about $2.69 more per acre than ARMS imputation methods and that our imputations (using an exhaustive iterative sequential regression) outperform other methods and/or smaller models.

Keywords

Agricultural Resource Management Surveycash rentsdirect paymentsfarm subsidiesland valuesmissing datamultiple imputationrobust regression
Type
Research Article
Information
Agricultural and Resource Economics Review , Volume 43 , Issue 3 , December 2014 , pp. 451 - 470
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association 

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