Too Risky to Focus on Agriculture? An Empirical Study of China’s Agricultural Households’ Off-Farm Employment Decisions

Xuan Chen, Jing Chen and Chien-Yu Huang
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Xuan Chen: Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30033, USA
Jing Chen: School of Economics, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469, USA
Chien-Yu Huang: Institute of Urban Development, Nanjing Audit University, Nanjing 210017, China

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 3, 1-18

Abstract: This paper investigates China’s agricultural households and their individual members’ off-farm labor supply decision in response to farm production risks and a number of other factors (e.g., demographic characteristics, farm characteristics, and local market features). Whether and to what extent farming risks may affect farmers’ off-farm employment in China are rarely studied. Our paper provides an empirical study to demonstrate that agricultural production risks significantly impact off-farm labor supply in rural China. The impacts of associated variables on households off-farm labor supply decisions are quantified using a sample of large–scale nationwide household finance survey in 2010. The results suggest that off-farm employment serves as a risk adaption strategy for Chinese farmers. Policy suggestions on retaining farmers to focus on agricultural production are discussed.

Keywords: off-farm employment; agricultural household; China; production risk (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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