What Drives Land-Use Change in the United States? A National Analysis of Landowner Decisions
利用1982至1997年的微观数据，通过计量模型量化了净收益对私人土地所有者分配六类用地决策的影响，首次揭示了市场和联邦农业政策在全国土地利用变化中的历史重要性。
Land-use changes involve important economic and environmental effects with implications for international trade, global climate change, wildlife, and other policy issues. We use an econometric model to identify factors driving land-use change in the United States between 1982 and 1997. We quantify the effects of net returns to alternative land uses on private landowners’ decisions to allocate land among six major uses, drawing on detailed micro-data on land use and land quality that are comprehensive of the contiguous United States. This analysis provides the first evidence of the relative historical importance of markets and federal farm policies affecting land-use changes nationally.<i></i>