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What Can We Learn about Shale Gas Development from Land Values? Opportunities, Challenges, and Evidence from Texas and Pennsylvania

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2016

Jeremy G. Weber  and
Claudia Hitaj
Jeremy G. Weber*
Affiliation:
Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and Department of Economics at University of Pittsburgh
Claudia Hitaj
Affiliation:
U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service
*
Correspondence: Jeremy G. Weber ▪ Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and Department of Economics ▪ University of Pittsburgh ▪ 3804 Posvar Hall ▪ Pittsburgh, PA 15261 ▪ Phone 412.648.2650 ▪ Email jgw99@pitt.edu.
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Abstract

We study farm real estate values in the Barnett shale (Texas) and the northeastern part of the Marcellus shale (Pennsylvania and New York). We find that shale gas development caused appreciation in real estate values in both areas but the effect was much larger for the Marcellus, suggesting broader ownership of oil and gas rights by surface owners. In both regions, the greatest appreciation occurred when land was leased for drilling, not when drilling and production boomed. We find evidence that effects vary by farm type, which may reflect correlation between farm type and ownership of oil and gas rights.

Keywords

land valuesoil and gas rightsshale
Type
Selected Papers
Information
Agricultural and Resource Economics Review , Volume 44 , Issue 2: Special Issue: Unconventional Gas and Oil Development: Economic and Environmental Impacts , August 2015 , pp. 40 - 58
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association 

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