Estimating wealth of self‐employed farm households

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors that are likely to influence their wealth accumulation. Characteristics of the farm, operator, family and potential successors that contribute to wealth accumulation will be identified. An additional objective of the paper is to determine if there was a discernable difference in the level of wealth accumulation between the two groups of farm households.Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses 2001 Agricultural Resource Management Survey data and a multivariate regression procedure. In particular, the study estimates two models one for those farm households whose wealth resides primarily in the farm and another for households with both farm business and nonfarm wealth.Findings – Results from this study show that differences exist in wealth accumulation among the two groups of farm households based on factors such as farm organization, farm size and farms specializing in Livestock and other crops. Results also show a classic inverted U‐shaped...