Lence, Sergio H.; Miller, Douglas

American Journal of Agricultural Economics Vol. 81 no. 2 (May 1999): 257-272.

The present study investigates whether the farmland "constant-discount-rate present-value-model (CDR-PVM) puzzle" is due to transaction costs. The theoretical implications of transaction costs for the CDR-PVM of farmland are discussed, and two bootstrap tests of such implications are introduced and applied to Iowa farmland prices and rents. Empirical results regarding the validity of the CDR-PVM in the presence of typical transaction costs are ambiguous. Econometric tests indicate that the CDR-PVM is consistent with typical transaction costs assuming a one-period holding horizon, but not when an infinite-holding horizon is hypothesized.