IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/aaea08/6087.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Did the Baby Boom Cause the Farm-Size Boom?

Author

Listed:
  • Roberts, Michael J.
  • Key, Nigel D.

Abstract

Growing farm size has generally been explained by technological advances that have allowed farmers to substitute capital for labor. Another possible factor in explaining recent farm size is the demographic shift: the age distribution of farmers has shifted to the right and older farmers generally operate larger farms than younger farmers. This paper uses data from the 1982, 1987, 1992, 1997, and 2002 Agricultural Censuses to examine the relative importance of the demographic shift versus technological factors in explaining overall farm size growth. Results indicate that farm sizes tend to increase with age and that, holding age constant, the typical farm-size has increased over time for all ages, presumably due to technological change. The age-distribution shift is combined with the age-specific farm-size shift, to provide a preliminary estimate of the effect of the age distribution shift and technological change on average farm size growth.

Suggested Citation

  • Roberts, Michael J. & Key, Nigel D., 2008. "Did the Baby Boom Cause the Farm-Size Boom?," 2008 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2008, Orlando, Florida 6087, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:aaea08:6087
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.6087
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/6087/files/469195.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.6087?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kislev, Yoav & Peterson, Willis, 1982. "Prices, Technology, and Farm Size," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 90(3), pages 578-595, June.
    2. Michael J. Roberts & Nigel Key, 2008. "Agricultural Payments and Land Concentration: A Semiparametric Spatial Regression Analysis," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 90(3), pages 627-643.
    3. H. Frederick Gale, 1994. "Longitudinal Analysis of Farm Size over the Farmer's Life Cycle," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 16(1), pages 113-123.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jeremy G. Weber & Nigel Key, 2014. "Do Wealth Gains from Land Appreciation Cause Farmers to Expand Acreage or Buy Land?," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 96(5), pages 1334-1348.
    2. Tauer, Loren, 2019. "Farmer productivity by age in the United States," International Journal of Agricultural Management, Institute of Agricultural Management, vol. 8(2), August.
    3. Oda, M. & Umetsu, C. & Shen, J., 2018. "The impacts of regional differences on farmland consolidation in Japan: The case of Tohoku, Hokuriku and Kinki," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277389, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    4. Townsend, Rob F. & van Zyl, Johan, 1998. "Estimation of the rate of return to wine grape research and technology development expenditures in South Africa," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 37(2), pages 1-22, June.
    5. He, Xi, 2018. "Bigger Farms and Bigger Food Firms-The Agricultural Origin of Industrial Concentration in the Food Sector," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 274206, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    6. Weber, Jeremy G. & Key, Nigel D., 2013. "Does proprietor wealth influence small business decisions? Land appreciation and farm business borrowing, land ownership, and output," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 150408, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    7. Jeremy G. Weber & Conor Wall & Jason Brown & Tom Hertz, 2015. "Crop Prices, Agricultural Revenues, and the Rural Economy," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 37(3), pages 459-476.
    8. Rodolfo E. Manuelli & Ananth Seshadri, 2014. "Frictionless Technology Diffusion: The Case of Tractors," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(4), pages 1368-1391, April.
    9. Mishra, Ashok K. & El-Osta, Hisham S. & Johnson, James D., 2004. "Succession In Family Farm Business: Empirical Evidence From The U.S. Farm Sector," 2004 Annual meeting, August 1-4, Denver, CO 20114, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    10. Azzam, Azzeddine & Walters, Cory & Kaus, Taylor, 2021. "Does subsidized crop insurance affect farm industry structure? Lessons from the U.S," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 43(6), pages 1167-1180.
    11. Arimoto, Yutaka & Lee, Changmin, 2014. "Did Japanese direct investment in Korea suppress indigenous industrialization in the 1930s? : evidence from country-level factory entry patterns," IDE Discussion Papers 450, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    12. Maitreesh Ghatak & Massimo Morelli & Tomas Sjöström, 2001. "Occupational Choice and Dynamic Incentives," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 68(4), pages 781-810.
    13. Kimhi, Ayal, 2009. "Heterogeneity, Specialization and Social Cohesion in Israeli Moshav Cooperatives," Journal of Rural Cooperation, Hebrew University, Center for Agricultural Economic Research, vol. 37(1), pages 1-13.
    14. Aleksander Grzelak, 2022. "The income-assets relationship for farms operating under selected models in Poland," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 68(2), pages 59-67.
    15. Khatri, Y. & Schimmelpfennig, D. & Thirtle, C. & van Zyl, J., 1996. "Refining Returns To Research And Development In South African Commercial Agriculture," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 35(4), December.
    16. Islas-Aguirre, Juan Francisco & Venegas-Martínez, Francisco, 2024. "Interacción entre apoyos monetarios agrícolas y pobreza en los estados de mayor producción agrícola en México (2020), un enfoque de econometría espacial," Panorama Económico, Escuela Superior de Economía, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, vol. 19(40), pages 203-231, Primer se.
    17. Burns, Christopher & Prager, Daniel, "undated". "Do Direct Payments and Crop Insurance Influence Commercial Farm Survival and Decisions to Expand?," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 235693, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    18. Tadjiev, Abdusame & Kurbanov, Zafar & Djanibekov, Nodir & Govind, Ajit & Akramkhanov, Akmal, 2023. "Determinants and impact of farmers' participation in social media groups: Evidence from irrigated areas of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan," IAMO Discussion Papers 201, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO).
    19. Ahearn, Mary Clare & Yee, Jet & Huffman, Wallace E., 2002. "The Impact Of Government Policies On Agricultural Productivity And Structure: Preliminary Results," 2002 Annual meeting, July 28-31, Long Beach, CA 19865, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    20. Thirtle, C. & Bottomley, P., 1988. "Explaining Total Factor Productivity Change: Returns to R & D in U.K. Agricultural Research," Manchester Working Papers in Agricultural Economics 232809, University of Manchester, School of Economics, Agricultural Economics Department.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Farm Management; Industrial Organization; Labor and Human Capital;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:aaea08:6087. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaeaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.