Farmland price bubbles: wavelet-based evidence

Land is the most important agricultural asset. Income risk due to farmland price volatility creates economic hardship for rural communities. Although inflation explains much of the farmland valuation problem, it remains to some extent a puzzle. We use wavelet-based statistical methods supported by econometrics to test a simple asset pricing model of land values in which a speculative price bubble is found in the real option value to land development. Theory suggests land as an asset is a good candidate for this hypothesis. The results show that a short-run speculative bubble appears to have been active in some years