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Cost and Effectiveness of Recent Government Land Retirement Programs in the United States
Author(s) -
Robinson K. L.
Publication year - 1966
Publication title -
american journal of agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.949
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1467-8276
pISSN - 0002-9092
DOI - 10.2307/1236176
Subject(s) - acre , government (linguistics) , production (economics) , payment , idle , agricultural economics , business , unit (ring theory) , economics , natural resource economics , finance , environmental science , agricultural science , microeconomics , mathematics education , mathematics , computer science , operating system , philosophy , linguistics
Recent land‐retirement programs have succeeded in achieving their major objective, which was to reduce existing or potential surpluses of grains, but the cost has been relatively high per unit of production. By altering land‐retirement programs so as to pay only for land retired, and not for idle equipment and labor as well, and by concentrating payments in those areas where land costs are low relative to annual output per acre, measured in terms of grain equivalent, the government might reduce total public costs substantially. Relatively simple administrative criteria are suggested to aid in deciding where land should be withdrawn if the primary objective is to minimize the public cost of achieving a given adjustment in grain production.