Deconstructing agricultural labour: a reflection on negative farm income

Stefan Mann ()

Journal of Socio-Economics in Agriculture (Until 2015: Yearbook of Socioeconomics in Agriculture), 2015, vol. 7, issue 1, 70-75

Abstract: This paper proceeds from the premise that five per cent of Swiss farms currently generate a financial loss. On average, this group of farms realizes a fairly high off-farm income. Challenging the notion of a ‘fair’ or ‘adequate’ agricultural income, we tackle the question of whether aiming to achieve the combination of negative farm income plus adequate off-farm income can be a rational strategy. An application of the Activity Choice Model answers this question in the affirmative. One of four interviews conducted with farmers having a negative agricultural income is analysed using objective hermeneutics. Whilst this approach shows that non-monetary utility has many dimensions, it primarily confirms the premise that negative farm income can be a rational strategy if combined with profitable off-farm work.Classification-JEL: R31, C14, Q50

Keywords: Activity choice; Negative incomes; Swiss agriculture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cha:ysa001:v:7:y:2014:i:1:p:70-75

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