Public Economic Benefits of Agricultural Conservation: Evidence from Housing Markets
Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists · 2026 · Wei Zhang、Yanggu Li、Pengfei Liu
中文摘要
对在耕农业用地的保护提供了多种生态系统服务,过去二十年间保护项目的公共资金投入大幅增加。本研究通过美国住房市场中的资本化效应,估计农业保护的公共经济效益。我们将美国农业部环境质量激励计划 (EQIP) 数据与单个房产交易进行空间链接,以估计居民对保护措施所提供的环境舒适性的估值。利用重复销售模型,我们发现农业保护会提高当地住房价格,其效益的资本化范围可达20英里。此外,我们发现两年前发放的保护支付比前一年发放的支付产生更大影响,这表明考虑保护影响的时间动态十分重要。我们还考察了针对不同资源问题或具有不同设计寿命的保护措施之间的异质性效应。我们的结果凸显了农业保护对周边社区的积极影响。
Abstract
Conservation on working agricultural lands provides many ecosystem services, and public funding for conservation programs has increased substantially over the past two decades. This study estimates the public economic benefits of agricultural conservation through its capitalization in US housing markets. We spatially link USDA Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) data with individual property transactions to estimate residents’ valuation of environmental amenities provided by conservation practices. Using a repeat-sales model, we find that agricultural conservation increases local housing prices, with benefits capitalized up to 20 miles. In addition, we show that conservation payments made two years ago have larger impacts than those made in the previous year, suggesting the importance of accounting for the temporal dynamics of conservation impacts. We also examine the heterogeneous impacts across practices targeting different resource concerns or with different design lifespans. Our results highlight the positive impact of agricultural conservation on nearby communities.