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Why Farmers Quit: A County‐Level Analysis
Author(s) -
Goetz Stephan J.,
Debertin David L.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
american journal of agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.949
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1467-8276
pISSN - 0002-9092
DOI - 10.1111/0002-9092.00226
Subject(s) - ceteris paribus , payment , agriculture , ordinary least squares , agricultural economics , business , propensity score matching , economics , agricultural science , labour economics , geography , statistics , econometrics , finance , mathematics , environmental science , archaeology , microeconomics
We identify the effects of alternative explanatory variables on the propensity of U.S. farmers to cease farming, with a particular emphasis on understanding the roles of off‐farm employment and federal farm program payments. Conventional ordinary least squares analysis using all counties suggests that off‐farm employment has no statistical effect on the (net) number of farmers quitting between 1987 and 1997, ceteris paribus . A more refined analysis, which separates counties losing farmers from those that gained farmers, reveals subtle and less clear‐cut effects of off‐farm employment (and federal program payments) on farm exits.