Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/272461 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 15834
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
About two-thirds of U.S. farm households are employed off the farm. Off-farm sources represent 85 percent of the income earned by the average farm household and have turned into their main source of health insurance coverage. Farmers receive various government farm program payments, including the recently added Market Facilitation Program (MFP) payments. These payments have an unintended consequence on labor supply by farm operator households. Using farm household-level data from the 2019 Agricultural Resource Management Survey, this study investigates the impact of employer-sponsored health insurance coverage and participation in MFP on off-farm labor allocation decisions of U.S. farm families. Results from our empirical model show that farm families are 52% more likely to work off the farm if off-farm jobs provide employer-sponsored health insurance coverage. More importantly, results show that MFP payments have a significant and negative effect on the off-farm employment of U.S. farm-operator households.
Subjects: 
Agricultural Resource Management Survey
government subsidies
employer-sponsored health insurance coverage
off-farm employment
JEL: 
C34
I13
J22
J38
J43
Q12
Q18
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
863.74 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.