The Role of Small Farms in Structural Change

Silke Huettel and Anne Margarian
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Silke Hüttel

No 59519, Structural Change in Agriculture/Strukturwandel im Agrarsektor (SiAg) Working Papers from Humboldt University Berlin, Department of Agricultural Economics

Abstract: This paper explains regionally differentiated patterns of structural change based on a theoretical framework dealing with strategic interaction of farms on the land market. The main research question focuses on the causes of regionally persistent structures. An empirical Markov chain model is defined for the West German agricultural sector. Thereby it is possible to explain the probabilities of farm growth, decline or exit in terms of the current and former regional farm size structure. Further, the impact of variables describing the regional farm structure, thereby indicating market power of the large, the potential of high competition for land within a region and possibly high rents of the status quo in combination with sunk costs, is quantified. The results confirm the relevance of strategic interaction as a crucial determinant of regionally different structural change and persistent regional differences in the farm size structure over time.

Keywords: Agribusiness; Agricultural and Food Policy; Community/Rural/Urban Development; Institutional and Behavioral Economics; Risk and Uncertainty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 31
Date: 2009-06
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/59519/files/wp3-fertig.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: The Role of Small Farms in Structural Change (2009)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:huscpw:59519

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.59519

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Structural Change in Agriculture/Strukturwandel im Agrarsektor (SiAg) Working Papers from Humboldt University Berlin, Department of Agricultural Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().