Files
Abstract
We investigate effects of corn-based ethanol plants on local land uses using
county-level panel data for Iowa for 1997 through 2009 and an Arellano-Bond
difference-generalized method-of-moments estimator. Our results show that
ethanol plants have statistically significant effects on the proportion of
acres planted to corn in the plants' host counties. Furthermore, ceteris
paribus, the land-use-change effect of locally owned plants (owned by local
farmers or cooperatives) is about twice as large as the effect of plants
with nonlocal owners. Environmental implications of the land-use change
effect also are explored.