What Motivates Farm Couples to Seek Off-farm Labour? A Logit Analysis of Job Transitions

Erik Biorn and Hild-Marte Bjørnsen ()
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Hild-Marte Bjørnsen: Norwegian Agricultural Economics Research Institute, Postal: Norwegian Agricultural Economics Research Institute, P.O. Box 8024 Dep , 0030 Oslo, Norway

No 09/2013, Memorandum from Oslo University, Department of Economics

Abstract: In this paper some labour market consequences of transitions in the agriculture sector are examined by combining a 20-year unbalanced panel data set from Norwegian farm couples (households) and logit modeling of one-period transition probabilities. The multi-dimensionality of the problem follows from two decision makers (partners) having four possible choices in each period: the farm operator and spouse can be working fully on the farm or having supplementary outside occupation. Transition probabilities are modeled by five alternative logit models. State dependence is represented to different extent. The most flexible model has a high number of parameters. Overall, the results indicate that transitions have mainly bee directed towards the state where both partners work off the farm. An increasing livestock reduces the probability of moving to states with substantial off-farm labour participation. Increased farm size tends to have the opposite effect. Recent on-farm investments come out with ambiguous effects, and the pattern seems to change during the observation period. Having children seems to motivate operators to withdraw from off-farm labour and spouses to stay in or entering off-farm employment.

Keywords: Labour market transitions; Agriculture; Panel data; Markov chain; Logit analysis; State dependence; Multiple job-holding (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C23 C25 C33 C35 J43 J62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32 pages
Date: 2013-04-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-dem
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Journal Article: What motivates farm couples to seek off-farm labour? A logit analysis of job transitions (2015)
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