IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/wisagr/12692.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

On Price Risk And The Inverse Farm Size-Productivity Relationship

Author

Listed:
  • Barrett, Christopher B.

Abstract

The oft-observed inverse relationship between farm size and productivity is generally explained by labor market imperfections. Although other explanations exist (e.g., size-sensitive cropping patterns and variable soil quality), the literature ignores uncertainty as an explanation. Using 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 an inverse relationship may exist, even absent any of the more common explanations. A simple data exercise suggests the plausibility of temporal price risk as an explanation for this phenomenon.

Suggested Citation

  • Barrett, Christopher B., 1993. "On Price Risk And The Inverse Farm Size-Productivity Relationship," Staff Papers 12692, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics.
  • Handle: RePEc:ags:wisagr:12692
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.12692
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/12692/files/stpap369.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.12692?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Frederick V. Waugh, 1944. "Does the Consumer Benefit from Price Instability?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 58(4), pages 602-614.
    2. Atanu Saha & C. Richard Shumway & Hovav Talpaz, 1994. "Joint Estimation of Risk Preference Structure and Technology Using Expo-Power Utility," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 76(2), pages 173-184.
    3. Michael R. Carter & Keith D. Wiebe, 1990. "Access to Capital and Its Impact on Agrarian Structure and Productivity in Kenya," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 72(5), pages 1146-1150.
    4. Richard E. Just, 1974. "An Investigation of the Importance of Risk in Farmers' Decisions," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 56(1), pages 14-25.
    5. Block, M K & Heineke, J M, 1973. "The Allocation of Effort under Uncertainty: The Case of Risk-averse Behavior," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(2), pages 376-385, Part I, M.
    6. Budd, John W, 1993. "Changing Food Prices and Rural Welfare: A Nonparametric Examination of the Cote d'Ivoire," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 41(3), pages 587-603, April.
    7. de Janvry, Alain & Fafchamps, M. & Sadoulet, Elisabeth, 1991. "Peasant Household Behavior with Missing Markets: Some Paradoxes Explain," CUDARE Working Papers 198579, University of California, Berkeley, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    8. Marcel Fafchamps, 1992. "Cash Crop Production, Food Price Volatility, and Rural Market Integration in the Third World," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 74(1), pages 90-99.
    9. Sandmo, Agnar, 1971. "On the Theory of the Competitive Firm under Price Uncertainty," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 61(1), pages 65-73, March.
    10. Epstein, L, 1975. "A Disaggregate Analysis of Consumer Choice under Uncertainty," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 43(5-6), pages 877-892, Sept.-Nov.
    11. Hans P. Binswanger, 1980. "Attitudes Toward Risk: Experimental Measurement in Rural India," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 62(3), pages 395-407.
    12. C. Peter Timmer & Harold Alderman, 1979. "Estimating Consumption Parameters for Food Policy Analysis," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 61(5), pages 982-987.
    13. Pitt, Mark M, 1983. "Food Preferences and Nutrition in Rural Bangladesh," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 65(1), pages 105-114, February.
    14. Sen, Abhijit, 1981. "Market Failure and Control of Labour Power: Towards an Explanation of 'Structure' and Change in Indian Agriculture: Part 1," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 5(3), pages 201-228, September.
    15. Deaton, Angus, 1995. "Data and econometric tools for development analysis," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Hollis Chenery & T.N. Srinivasan (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 33, pages 1785-1882, Elsevier.
    16. Stiglitz, Joseph E., 1986. "The new development economics," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 257-265, February.
    17. Turnovsky, Stephen J & Shalit, Haim & Schmitz, Andrew, 1980. "Consumer's Surplus, Price Instability, and Consumer Welfare," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(1), pages 135-152, January.
    18. Binswanger, Hans P. & Deininger, Klaus & Feder, Gershon, 1995. "Power, distortions, revolt and reform in agricultural land relations," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Hollis Chenery & T.N. Srinivasan (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 42, pages 2659-2772, Elsevier.
    19. Hazell, P. B. R. & Roell, Ailsa, 1983. "Rural growth linkages: household expenditure patterns in Malaysia and Nigeria," Research reports 41, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    20. Timmer, C Peter, 1981. "Is There "Curvature" in the Slutsky Matrix?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 63(3), pages 395-402, August.
    21. Frisvold, George B., 1994. "Does supervision matter? Some hypothesis tests using Indian farm-level data," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 217-238, April.
    22. Michael T. Weber & John M. Staatz & Eric W. Crawford & Richard H. Bernsten & John S. Holtzman, 1988. "Informing Food Security Decisions in Africa: Empirical Analysis and Policy Dialogue," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 70(5), pages 1044-1052.
    23. Carter, Michael R, 1984. "Identification of the Inverse Relationship between Farm Size and Productivity: An Empirical Analysis of Peasant Agricultural Production," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 36(1), pages 131-145, March.
    24. de Janvry, Alain & Fafchamps, Marcel & Sadoulet, Elisabeth, 1991. "Peasant Household Behaviour with Missing Markets: Some Paradoxes Explained," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 101(409), pages 1400-1417, November.
    25. Zenaida Toquero & Bart Duff & Teresa Anden-Lacsina & Yujiro Hayami, 1975. "Marketable Surplus Functions for a Subsistence Crop: Rice in the Philippines," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 57(4), pages 705-709.
    26. Bhalla, Surjit S., 1988. "Does land quality matter? : Theory and measurement," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 45-62, July.
    27. John M. Antle, 1987. "Econometric Estimation of Producers' Risk Attitudes," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 69(3), pages 509-522.
    28. Bardhan, Pranab K, 1973. "Size, Productivity, and Returns to Scale: An Analysis of Farm-Level Data in Indian Agriculture," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(6), pages 1370-1386, Nov.-Dec..
    29. Israel Finkelshtain & James A. Chalfant, 1991. "Marketed Surplus under Risk: Do Peasants Agree with Sandmo?," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 73(3), pages 557-567.
    30. Per Pinstrup-Andersen & Elizabeth Caicedo, 1978. "The Potential Impact of Changes in Income Distribution on Food Demand and Human Nutrition," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 60(3), pages 402-415.
    31. Bhalla, Surjit S & Roy, Prannoy L, 1988. "Mis-specification in Farm Productivity Analysis: The Role of Land Quality," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 40(1), pages 55-73, March.
    32. Taslim, M A, 1989. "Supervision Problems and the Size-Productivity Relation in Bangladesh Agriculture," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 51(1), pages 55-71, February.
    33. Newbery, David M, 1989. "The Theory of Food Price Stabilisation," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 99(398), pages 1065-1082, December.
    34. Chavas, Jean-Paul & Holt, Matthew T, 1996. "Economic Behavior under Uncertainty: A Joint Analysis of Risk Preferences and Technology," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 78(2), pages 329-335, May.
    35. Christopher B. Barrett & Paul A. Dorosh, 1996. "Farmers' Welfare and Changing Food Prices: Nonparametric Evidence from Rice in Madagascar," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 78(3), pages 656-669.
    36. Benjamin, Dwayne, 1995. "Can unobserved land quality explain the inverse productivity relationship?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 51-84, February.
    37. Feder, Gershon, 1985. "The relation between farm size and farm productivity : The role of family labor, supervision and credit constraints," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2-3), pages 297-313, August.
    38. Behrman, Jere R., 1987. "Commodity price instability and economic goal attainment in developing countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 15(5), pages 559-573, May.
    39. Per Pinstrup-Andersen & Norha Ruiz de Londoño & Edward Hoover, 1976. "The Impact of Increasing Food Supply on Human Nutrition: Implications for Commodity Priorities in Agricultural Research and Policy," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 58(2), pages 133-142.
    40. John Strauss, 1984. "Marketed Surpluses of Agricultural Households in Sierra Leone," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 66(3), pages 321-331.
    41. Waterfield, Charles, 1985. "Disaggregating food consumption parameters : Designing targeted nutritional interventions," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 337-351, November.
    42. Baron, David P, 1970. "Price Uncertainty, Utility, and Industry Equilibrium in Pure Competition," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 11(3), pages 463-480, October.
    43. Greer, Joel & Thorbecke, Erik, 1986. "Food Poverty Profile Applied to Kenyan Smallholders," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 35(1), pages 115-141, October.
    44. Deaton, Angus, 1989. "Rice Prices and Income Distribution in Thailand: A Non-parametric Analysis," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 99(395), pages 1-37, Supplemen.
    45. Sen, Abhijit, 1981. "Market Failure and Control of Labour Power: Towards an Explanation of 'Structure' and Change in Indian Agriculture. Part 2," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 5(4), pages 327-350, December.
    46. Cornia, Giovanni Andrea, 1985. "Farm size, land yields and the agricultural production function: An analysis for fifteen developing countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 513-534, April.
    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. Barrett, Christopher B., 1999. "The microeconomics of the developmental paradox: on the political economy of food price policy," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 20(2), pages 159-172, March.
    2. Kimhi, Ayal, 2003. "Plot Size And Maize Productivity In Zambia: The Inverse Relationship Re-Examined," Discussion Papers 14980, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Department of Agricultural Economics and Management.
    3. Ali, Daniel Ayalew & Deininger, Klaus, 2014. "Is there a farm-size productivity relationship in African agriculture ? evidence from Rwanda," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6770, The World Bank.
    4. Barrett, Christopher B., 1998. "Immiserized growth in liberalized agriculture," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 743-753, May.
    5. Barrett, Christopher B., 1999. "Stochastic food prices and slash-and-burn agriculture," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 4(2), pages 161-176, May.
    6. Gilligan, Daniel O., 1998. "Farm Size, Productivity, And Economic Efficiency: Accounting For Differences In Efficiency Of Farms By Size In Honduras," 1998 Annual meeting, August 2-5, Salt Lake City, UT 20918, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    7. Klasen, Stephan & Reimers, Malte, 2017. "Looking at Pro-Poor Growth from an Agricultural Perspective," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 147-168.
    8. Kurosaki, Takashi & Fafchamps, Marcel, 2002. "Insurance market efficiency and crop choices in Pakistan," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 419-453, April.
    9. Heltberg, Rasmus, 1998. "Rural market imperfections and the farm size-- productivity relationship: Evidence from Pakistan," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 26(10), pages 1807-1826, October.
    10. Thomas Masterson, 2007. "Productivity, Technical Efficiency, and Farm Size in Paraguayan Agriculture," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_490, Levy Economics Institute.
    11. Omotilewa, Oluwatoba J. & Jayne, T.S. & Muyanga, Milu & Aromolaran, Adebayo B. & Liverpool-Tasie, Lenis Saweda O. & Awokuse, Titus, 2021. "A revisit of farm size and productivity: Empirical evidence from a wide range of farm sizes in Nigeria," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    12. Deininger, Klaus & Binswanger, Hans, 1999. "The Evolution of the World Bank's Land Policy: Principles, Experience, and Future Challenges," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 14(2), pages 247-276, August.
    13. Donald F. Larson & Keijiro Otsuka & Tomoya Matsumoto & Talip Kilic, 2014. "Should African rural development strategies depend on smallholder farms? An exploration of the inverse-productivity hypothesis," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 45(3), pages 355-367, May.
    14. Holden, Stein T. & Ali, Daniel & Deininger, Klaus & Hilhorst, Thea, 2016. "A Land Tenure Module for LSMS," CLTS Working Papers 1/16, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Centre for Land Tenure Studies, revised 16 Oct 2019.
    15. Vergez, Antonin, 2007. "Agricultural Price Seasonality and Market Failure: Examining the Net Seller Household and the Net Benefit Ratio Definition," 106th Seminar, October 25-27, 2007, Montpellier, France 7911, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    16. Daniel Lederman & Guido Porto, 2016. "The Price Is Not Always Right: On the Impacts of Commodity Prices on Households (and Countries)," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 31(1), pages 168-197.
    17. Helfand, Steven M. & Taylor, Matthew P.H., 2021. "The inverse relationship between farm size and productivity: Refocusing the debate," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    18. Larson,Donald F. & Muraoka,Rie & Otsuka,Keijiro, 2016. "On the central role of small farms in African rural development strategies," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7710, The World Bank.
    19. Chen, Huang, 2017. "Agricultural Risk, Insurance, and the Land-productivity Inverse Relationship," 2017 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 1, Chicago, Illinois 258212, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    20. Delphine Boutin, 2011. "D’une crise à l’autre : Mesurer l’impact des prix alimentaires sur la pauvreté," Larefi Working Papers 1106, Larefi, Université Bordeaux 4.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Productivity Analysis;

    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:ags:wisagr:12692. 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: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dauwius.html .

    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.