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Measuring Farm Household Well-Being: Comparing Consumption and Income-based Measures

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  • Jones, Carol Adaire
  • Milkove, Daniel
  • Paszkiewicz, Laura

Abstract

This paper reports estimates of consumption-based measures of well-being for farm households based on new, specially-designed survey questions in USDA’s annual, nationally representative survey of farms, the Agricultural Resource Management Survey. With this new data, we show how patterns of consumption-smoothing relative to income levels differ between farm households versus all U.S. households, and between households of operators of large farms vs. “residential-lifestyle” farms, with limited exposure to farm income variability. We then show that the consumption measure provides a different perspective than income and wealth on the well-being of farm households relative to all U.S. households.

Suggested Citation

  • Jones, Carol Adaire & Milkove, Daniel & Paszkiewicz, Laura, 2009. "Measuring Farm Household Well-Being: Comparing Consumption and Income-based Measures," 2009 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, 2009, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 49355, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
  • Handle: RePEc:ags:aaea09:49355
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.49355
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Consumer/Household Economics;

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