On price risk and the inverse farm size-productivity relationship

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Barrett, CB
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3878
• DOI: 10.1016/S0304-3878(96)00412-9
• 发表日期: 1996
• 页码: 193-215
• 关键词: Agricultural household models; inverse relationship; price risk; Madagascar

摘要

The oft-observed inverse relationship between farm size and productivity has elicited several explanations having important policy and theoretical implications. Using advances in the analysis of price risk effects on producer behavior, and a simple two-period model of an agricultural household that both produces and consumes under price uncertainty at the time labor allocation decisions are made, this paper demonstrates analytically that a non-degenerate land distribution and price risk can together produce an inverse relationship, even absent any of the more common explanations. Empirical evidence from Madagascar confirms the plausibility of this intuitive explanation for the phenomenon.