A Microsimulation Model for the Land Rental Market in Irish Farming

In this paper, we utilize Teagasc National Farm survey data to analyse the agricultural land rental market in Ireland with a newly developed agent-based microsimulation model. This model is compared to an equilibrium model of the land rental market. We conclude that the microsimulation model has a number of advantages over the equilibrium model in addressing the interactions between landowners and tenants and dealing with farm size concentration. The equilibrium model retains some advantages in dealing with the question of price determination and in illustrating the potential surpluses to be gained from a more active land rental market.