The relation between farm size and farm productivity: The role of family labor, supervision and credit constraints

✍ Scribed by Gershon Feder

• Book ID: 116123931
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1985
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 902 KB
• Volume: 18
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0304-3878
• DOI: 10.1016/0304-3878(85)90059-8

✦ Synopsis

The paper shows that if the performance of hired farmhands is affected by supervision from family members, and if the availability of credit is dependent on the amount of land owned, then a systematic (positive or negative) relationship between per-acre yields and farm s~e will prevail. A model with no supervision effects on labor productivity would predict that yields are unaffected by farm size. The paper also investigates the relation between land utilization and owned holding size when land rental possibilities are limited. Results are shown to be comparable with various observed patterns in LDCs.