Farm growth and the land concentration

Matthias Ritter, a member of the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Spatial Economics at JIBS, has co-authored the paper, which is published in Land Use Policy.

A new research study has analyzed the relation between land market concentration and farm size changes, considering different definitions of the relevant market. Using data from the Integrated Administrative Control System (IACS) from 2005 until 2017 for Brandenburg, Germany, it turns out that about half of the land transactions occur beyond municipality borders, which emphasizes the importance of carefully defining the relevant market. The descriptive analysis shows that although concentration rates, on average, did not increase over time, spatial differences are present. In the econometric analysis, a two-stage model is applied to analyze how competition for agricultural land impacts the probability and relative level of expansion. For farms that remained active between 2005 and 2017, a negative relation between farm size and relative growth has been found. The conjecture that higher inequality of land distribution fosters the expansion of large farms was not confirmed.

Farm growth and land concentration (2022). Jana Plogmann, Oliver Mußhoff, Martin Odening, Matthias Ritter. Land Use Policy 11, April 2022, 106036. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2022.106036

Author’s share link (free access until April 2, 2022): https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1eZq8yDvMLypt