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Farm Structure and the Economic Well‐Being of Nonmetropolitan Counties
Author(s) -
Barnes Donna,
Blevins Audie
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
rural sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.083
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1549-0831
pISSN - 0036-0112
DOI - 10.1111/j.1549-0831.1992.tb00468.x
Subject(s) - nonfarm payrolls , demographic economics , dependency ratio , rural area , economic growth , economics , geography , economic geography , agriculture , political science , sociology , demography , population , archaeology , law
The Goldschmidt thesis (1947, 1978) maintains that increasing farm size in the United States has undermined the well‐being of rural communities. Recent studies have cast doubt on this, however. We analyze data for nonmetropolitan counties in the United States, and also incorporate indicators of the nonfarm economic sector into our analysis so that we can explore the net effect of farm structure on well‐being. In addition, we distinguish nonmetropolitan counties by their level of farm dependency. Our study fails to support the Goldschmidt thesis.