Price incentives for resource quality investments : a hedonic study of agricultural land markets in Quebec's agricultural regions 5,6,7, and 10

Public concern for the intergenerational transfer of natural resources has generated an interest in sustainable development and sustainable agriculture. Policy makers have a new mandate to insure the promotion of sustainable agriculture. At the same time these policy makers must also reduce public expenditures in agriculture. These two conflicting mandates can only be accomplished when private market values for various soil conservation investments are known. Once this market information is known, policy makers can formulate appropriate policies to achieve both goals.The focus of this research is to measure the significant factors affecting land values in the study area. The sample farm sales data used were drawn from four of Quebec's twelve agricultural regions. Two of these regions are among Quebec's most productive. These data were used in conjunction with a Hedonic Pricing Model for the analysis.This research seeks to quantify the implied price paid for land characteristics, soil conservation and capital improvement investments. The research should determine whether the studied land market provides adequate price incentives for private market implementation of soil conservation and capital improvement investments. These investments are necessary to achieve a sustainable agriculture scheme