Distributional impacts of conservation on land prices

Abstract

This paper studies the costs and distributional impacts of the Natura 2000 network. We estimate how land use restrictions are capitalized into property prices in Finland by combining data on land transactions with the roll-out of the network. Our results indicate sizable negative effects on forest and agricultural land, and moderate negative effects on unbuilt lots, especially in socioeconomically deprived areas. In contrast, we find positive effects on built properties both inside and nearby protected areas. Although the costs of Natura 2000 were moderate, the network had a clear distributional impact, reallocating rents from landowners to house and cabin owners.