The Relation Between Farm Production Risk and Off-Farm Income

Farm Income Variability and the Supply of Off-Farm Labor

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...

Off-Farm Income, Technology Adoption, and Farm Economic Performance

The economic well-being of most U.S. farm households depends on income from both onfarm and off-farm activities. Consequently, for many farm households, economic decisions (including technology adoption and other production decisions) are likely to be shaped by the allocation of managerial time among such activities. While time allocation decisions are usually not measured directly, we observe ...

Farm Income Variability and the Supply of Off-Farm Labor by Limited-Resource Farmers

Farm Production

A burgeoning body of literature highlights asymmetric information among household members. However, little is known about the source of the asymmetry and its effect on efficiency. Using a unique survey of Ghanaian households, we examine the accuracy of spousal cross reports and the effect of discrepancies on farm production. We find that information problems pertain to scale (the quantity of re...

Farm-level Production Effects

In theory, lump-sum transfers are a way to redistribute wealth without distorting production decisions. Recent agricultural policy reforms are an unusual large-scale application of this concept. The 1996 Federal Agricultural Improvement and Reform (FAIR) Act removed most price-contingent agricultural subsidies and replaced them with Production Flexibility Contracts—lump-sum payments with few ti...