The Fischler Reform of the Common Agricultural Policy and Agricultural Land Prices

Abstract

Based on 7,300 agricultural land sales transactions, we estimate the effect of the 2003 reform of the E.U. Common Agricultural Policy on land prices. As opposed to the main body of the literature on agricultural land values, we do not start from a demand-oriented net present value approach or hedonic pricing method, but derive our reduced form pricing equation from a spatial land sales market model. Our empirical model accounts for spatial dependence and endogeneity of explanatory variables. A reduction of payments by 50 €/ha would decrease land sales prices by 445 €/ha before and by 984 €/ha after the reform. (JEL Q15, Q18)