PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Alix-Garcia, Jennifer
AU  - Kuemmerle, Tobias
AU  - Radeloff, Volker C.
TI  - Prices, Land Tenure Institutions, and Geography: A Matching Analysis of Farmland Abandonment in Post-Socialist Eastern Europe
AID  - 10.3368/le.88.3.425
DP  - 2012 Aug 01
TA  - Land Economics
PG  - 425--443
VI  - 88
IP  - 3
4099  - http://le.uwpress.org/content/88/3/425.short
4100  - http://le.uwpress.org/content/88/3/425.full
SO  - Land Econ2012 Aug 01; 88
AB  - This paper uses remote sensing data from 1989 to 2000 to examine the impacts of price liberalization, land tenure, and biophysical characteristics on farmland abandonment in the border region of Poland, Slovakia, and Ukraine. Using regression analysis and matching estimators, we find that differences in biophysical characteristics, rather than in tenure systems, best explain the variation in abandonment rates within Poland. The difference in abandonment rates between Poland and Slovakia partially results from differences in land reform strategy, and abandonment in Ukraine takes a unique trajectory because of the incompleteness of the land reform and the lack of outside opportunities for residents. (JEL Q15, R14)