ABSTRACT
Land is a complex natural resource that has diverse values for different people. Understanding what those values are and how they change over time is important in order to obtain the greatest benefit from our finite land resources. Early economic perspectives emphasized the value of land for food and fiber production, viewing land solely as capital in the production of private goods, whose commodity values were reflected through market transactions. As many countries have developed from agrarian to urban, however, and as food scarcity has been replaced by food abundance, the economic view of land has broadened.
