Off-Farm Income, Technology Adoption, and Farm Economic Performance
by
Jorge Fernandez-Cornejo
Economic Research Report No. (ERR-36) 53 pp, February 2007
cover image for err36
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 the outcomes of such decisions, such as onfarm and off-farm income. This report finds that a farm operator’s off-farm employment and off-farm income vary inversely with the size of the farm. Operators of smaller farm operations improve their economic performance by compensating for the scale disadvantages of their farm business with more off-farm involvement. Off-farm work reduces farm-level technical efficiency, but increases household-level technical efficiency. And adoption of agricultural innovations that save managerial time is associated with higher off-farm income.
Keywords: Off-farm income, farm households, economic performance, managerial time, scale economies, scope economies, technical efficiency, technology adoption, farm size, Agricultural Economics
In this publication...
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Report summary, Pdf file 135 kb | HTML
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Abstract, Acknowledgments, Contents, and Summary , Pdf file 256 kb
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Introduction and Overview, Pdf file 124 kb
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Off-Farm Work and Income in U.S. Farm Households, Pdf file 63 kb
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Off-Farm Income and Farm/Household Characteristics, Pdf file 2,984 kb
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Off-Farm Work, Scale and Scope Economies, and Efficiency, Pdf file 89 kb
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Off-Farm Work and the Adoption of Agricultural Innovations, Pdf file 79 kb
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Conclusions, Pdf file 47 kb
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References, Pdf file 74 kb
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Appendix 1: Economies of Scale and Scope and Technical Efficiency, Pdf file 90 kb
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Appendix 2: Incorporating Technology Adoption in the Farm Household Model, Pdf file 102 kb
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Entire report, Pdf file 3,429 kb
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