Comportamiento de los precios reales de la tierra agrícola en la Argentina y en los Estados Unidos, 1960-2012

The recent international financial crisis has highlighted the role of real asset prices in the macroeconomic fluctuations of advanced economies. This paper analyzes the effects of some external and domestic shocks in the real prices of agricultural land in Argentina economy and compared the results with the situation observed in the United States. To this end, we used VEC models (vector error correction) and annual data covering the period 1960-2012. The estimation results show that real GDP would be the most relevant factor to explain the volatility in the land prices in Argentina, in contrast with the United States where the real interest rate would be the main factor. The estimates also include other macroeconomic shocks (international real prices of agricultural commodities, general price index, real exchange rate) to explain the variability in the real prices of these assets.