Hennessy, David A.

American Journal of Agricultural Economics Vol. 81 no. 3 (August 1999): 534-543.

Agricultural resources tend to be owned by individuals in the later stages of their economic life. If older agricultural resource owners tend to use resources less productively than younger owners, then much of the resource base in agriculture may be inefficiently employed. This article argues that U.S. capital taxation laws may be partly responsible for resource immobility. Capital gains taxation tends to reduce resource mobility, as does the family business estate tax exemption. The 1997 Taxpayer Relief Act could exacerbate the immobility problem.