Agricultural land transactions in Palestine, 1900-1914: a quantitative analysis

The paper presents a historical and quatitative analysis of agricultural land transactions between Jews (buyers) and Arabs (sellers) in Patestine at the beginning of the century. Based on data relating to 104 plots (drawm from the archives of the Jewish settlement associations and organizations) and using the hedonic prices approach, it is found that site, relative location, and period of sale explain two-thirds of the variance in price. In addition, the nature of ownership, location in proximity to lands under Jewish ownership, and geopolitical region have substantial effects as well. The last factor is particularly interesting as it relates to nationalistic considerations of land redemption and preparation of a base for a national homeland.