IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cha/ysa001/v7y2014i1p70-75.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Deconstructing agricultural labour: a reflection on negative farm income

Author

Listed:
  • Stefan Mann

    (Agroscope, Tänikon, Switzerland)

Abstract

This paper proceeds from the premise that five per cent of Swiss farms currently generate a financial loss. On average, this group of farms realizes a fairly high off-farm income. Challenging the notion of a ‘fair’ or ‘adequate’ agricultural income, we tackle the question of whether aiming to achieve the combination of negative farm income plus adequate off-farm income can be a rational strategy. An application of the Activity Choice Model answers this question in the affirmative. One of four interviews conducted with farmers having a negative agricultural income is analysed using objective hermeneutics. Whilst this approach shows that non-monetary utility has many dimensions, it primarily confirms the premise that negative farm income can be a rational strategy if combined with profitable off-farm work.Classification-JEL: R31, C14, Q50

Suggested Citation

  • Stefan Mann, 2015. "Deconstructing agricultural labour: a reflection on negative farm income," Journal of Socio-Economics in Agriculture (Until 2015: Yearbook of Socioeconomics in Agriculture), Swiss Society for Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology, vol. 7(1), pages 70-75.
    • Handle: RePEc:cha:ysa001:v:7:y:2014:i:1:p:70-75
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://archive.jsagr.org/v7/YSA2014_Mann.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ziegenspeck, Svantje & Hardter, Ulf & Schraml, Ulrich, 2004. "Lifestyles of private forest owners as an indication of social change," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(5), pages 447-458, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fabra-Crespo, M. & Rojas-Briales, E., 2015. "Comparative analysis on the communication strategies of the forest owners' associations in Europe," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 20-30.
    2. Ficko, Andrej & Lidestav, Gun & Ní Dhubháin, Áine & Karppinen, Heimo & Zivojinovic, Ivana & Westin, Kerstin, 2019. "European private forest owner typologies: A review of methods and use," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 21-31.
    3. Ní Dhubháin, Áine & Maguire, Karl & Farrelly, Niall, 2010. "The harvesting behaviour of Irish private forest owners," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(7), pages 513-517, September.
    4. Joa, Bettina & Schraml, Ulrich, 2020. "Conservation practiced by private forest owners in Southwest Germany – The role of values, perceptions and local forest knowledge," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    5. Novais, Ana & Canadas, Maria João, 2010. "Understanding the management logic of private forest owners: A new approach," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 173-180, March.
    6. Kilham, Philipp & Hartebrodt, Christoph & Schraml, Ulrich, 2019. "A conceptual model for private forest owners' harvest decisions: A qualitative study in southwest Germany," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 1-1.
    7. Côté, Marc-André & Généreux-Tremblay, Ariane & Gilbert, Diane & Gélinas, Nancy, 2017. "Comparing the profiles, objectives and behaviours of new and longstanding non-industrial private forest owners in Quebec, Canada," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 116-121.
    8. Schluter, Achim, 2007. "Institutional change in the forestry sector--The explanatory potential of New Institutional Economics," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(8), pages 1090-1099, May.
    9. Urquhart, Julie & Courtney, Paul, 2011. "Seeing the owner behind the trees: A typology of small-scale private woodland owners in England," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(7), pages 535-544, September.
    10. Côté, Marc-André & Gilbert, Diane & Nadeau, Solange, 2015. "Characterizing the profiles, motivations and behaviour of Quebec's forest owners," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 83-90.
    11. Sanz-Hernández, Alexia, 2021. "Privately owned forests and woodlands in Spain: Changing resilience strategies towards a forest-based bioeconomy," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    12. Glück, Peter & Avdibegovic, Mersudin & Cabaravdic, Azra & Nonic, Dragan & Petrovic, Nenad & Posavec, Stjepan & Stojanovska, Makedonka, 2010. "The preconditions for the formation of private forest owners' interest associations in the Western Balkan Region," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 250-263, April.
    13. Weiss, Gerhard & Lawrence, Anna & Hujala, Teppo & Lidestav, Gun & Nichiforel, Liviu & Nybakk, Erlend & Quiroga, Sonia & Sarvašová, Zuzana & Suarez, Cristina & Živojinović, Ivana, 2019. "Forest ownership changes in Europe: State of knowledge and conceptual foundations," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 9-20.
    14. Matilainen, A. & Koch, M. & Zivojinovic, I. & Lähdesmäki, M. & Lidestav, G. & Karppinen, H. & Didolot, F. & Jarsky, V. & Põllumäe, P. & Colson, V. & Hricova, Z. & Glavonjic, P. & Scriban, R.E., 2019. "Perceptions of ownership among new forest owners – A qualitative study in European context," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 43-51.
    15. Vangansbeke, Pieter & Gorissen, Leen & Nevens, Frank & Verheyen, Kris, 2015. "Towards co-ownership in forest management: Analysis of a pioneering case ‘Bosland’ (Flanders, Belgium) through transition lenses," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 98-109.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Activity choice; Negative incomes; Swiss agriculture;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R31 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Housing Supply and Markets
    • C14 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Semiparametric and Nonparametric Methods: General
    • Q50 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cha:ysa001:v:7:y:2014:i:1:p:70-75. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Simon Briner (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://jsagr.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.