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Farm Income Variability and the Supply of Off‐Farm Labor
Author(s) -
Mishra Ashok K.,
Goodwin Barry K.
Publication year - 1997
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 - 10.2307/1244429
Subject(s) - farm income , payment , income support , leverage (statistics) , business , farm workers , government (linguistics) , household income , labour economics , agricultural economics , small farm , work (physics) , economics , agricultural science , agriculture , production (economics) , finance , geography , mechanical engineering , linguistics , philosophy , environmental science , archaeology , machine learning , macroeconomics , computer science , engineering
If farmers are risk averse, greater farm income variability should increase off‐farm labor supply. This effect is confirmed for a sample of Kansas farmers. Off‐farm employment of farmers and their spouses is also found to be significantly influenced by farm experience, off‐farm work experience, farm size, leverage, efficiency, and farm‐specific education. In addition, farm operators and spouses who receive significant income support through government farm programs are less likely to work off the farm. This may suggest that policy changes reducing farm income support payments may increase off‐farm employment of farmers and their spouses.