Feast or flee: Government payments and labor migration from U.S. agriculture

Government payments have been a part of agriculture since 1933 and at no time has the government stated a policy objective of decreasing the agricultural labor force. The reality of the matter may be considerably different. Using time series data and new econometric techniques, this study finds agri...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of policy modeling 2012-03, Vol.34 (2), p.181-192
Main Authors: D’Antoni, Jeremy M., Mishra, Ashok K., Barkley, Andrew P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural policy
Agriculture
Direct government payments
Econometric models
Econometrics
Farm households
Farm income
Farm management
Labor economics
Labor force
Labor migration
Labour migration
Migration
Studies
Subsidies
Time series
Time-series analysis
U.S.A
Workers
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Summary:Government payments have been a part of agriculture since 1933 and at no time has the government stated a policy objective of decreasing the agricultural labor force. The reality of the matter may be considerably different. Using time series data and new econometric techniques, this study finds agricultural policy may have an unintended impact on labor migration. Specifically, we find that government payments increased labor migration from the farm. From 1939 to 2007, increased direct government payments resulted in greater migration of labor from agriculture. Government policy appears to have shown limited success at sustaining the agricultural labor force.
ISSN:0161-8938
1873-8060
DOI:10.1016/j.jpolmod.2011.10.002