An Empirical Investigation of the Impacts of Government Program Payments on Farmland Rental Rates

The paper investigates the capitalizations of aggregate and disaggregate government subsidies into farmland rental rates using selection bias correction models. It investigates cash as well as share rental rates, which are largely used in US agriculture. The empirical results suggest that government subsidies have large significant effects on rental rates. More specifically, we find that landlords capture 37%-38% of the aggregate subsidies under cash leases, and 86%-88% under share contracts. Disaggregate farm programs are also found to have different impacts on rental rates according to the types of programs and leasing arrangements.