ANALYZING THE EFFECTIVENESS AND EFFICIENCY OF FARMLAND PRESERVATION POLICIES IN SUPPORTING SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED FARMS

Our goal is to rigorously analyze multipleaspects of Wisconsin's farmland preservation program and determine how different policies causally affect farmland transition, farm size, and the local agricultural economy. Our specific objectives are to:build a geospatially linked panel dataset of annual farmland preservation policies, preservation agreements, land uses, farm sizes, and agricultural businesses in Wisconsin since 2010,estimate the supply curve for farmers to enter into a binding farmland preservation agreement,estimate the causal effects of establishing an Agricultural Enterprise Area (AEA) on land use, farmland transition, and farm size, andestimate the causal effects of establishing an Agricultural Enterprise Area (AEA) on thelocal agricultural economy and agribusiness sector.