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The Optimal Quantity of Land in Agriculture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2017

K. E. McConnell
K. E. McConnell*
Affiliation:
Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742
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Extract

In 1952, when T. W. Schultz declared that land had lost its place as a unique factor of production, he was certainly right about U.S. agriculture. For the almost four decades since Schultz's prophetic analysis, output of U.S. agriculture has increased steadily while the exploited land base has slightly decreased. Land has not proved a constraint to production. Many varieties of technical change have kept the marginal product of land from falling, despite its increasingly intensive use.

Type
Invited Presentation
Information
Northeastern Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , October 1989 , pp. 63 - 72
Copyright
Copyright © 1989 Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association 

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Footnotes

Presented at the Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association meetings, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, June 19–21, 1989.

References

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