The Impact of Irrigation Restrictions on Cropland Values in Nebraska

Irrigation restrictions play an important role in allocating water in Nebraska, but the costs of these water management institutions are difficult to measure. This study takes advantage of temporal and spatial variation in water management policies across Nebraska, as well as plot level data that incorporates information on cropland values, irrigation status, and physical characteristics to measure the impact of irrigation restrictions on cropland values. Using a hedonic model with field-level fixed effects, we find that irrigation moratoria decreased the value of affected cropland in recent years when higher commodity prices increased the relative profitability of irrigation relative to dryland.