TY - JOUR
T1 - Effect of agricultural policy on regional income inequality among farm households
AU - Mishra, Ashok
AU - El-Osta, Hisham
AU - Gillespie, Jeffrey M.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank the editor for valuable comments. Appreciation is expressed to Kenneth J. Thomson from United Kingdom for helpful discussions and comments. The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the Economic Research Service or the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This project was supported by the USDA Cooperative State Research Education & Extension Service, Hatch project # 0212495 and Louisiana State University Experiment Station project # LAB 93872.
Copyright:
Copyright 2009 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2009/5
Y1 - 2009/5
N2 - Policymakers are under constant pressure to alleviate financial stress, mainly associated with farm business income, on farm households through government farm program payments. The 1996 FAIR Act signaled the end of these payments and Congress decided that agricultural policy should be more market oriented. Using the Gini coefficient concept and a large farm-level dataset, this study investigates the impact of government payments on income inequality among farm households in nine farming resource regions of the U.S. Results indicate that distribution of income among farm households in the Fruitful Rim region was above the level of dispersion for all U.S. farm households; however, income inequality in the Heartland region was below the level of dispersion for all U.S. farm households. Finally, income from government farm programs helped reduce total income inequality in the Heartland and Northern Great Plains regions, while income from off-farm wages and/or salaries played an important role in reducing total income inequality in Basin and Range and Fruitful Rim regions of the U.S. farm sector.
AB - Policymakers are under constant pressure to alleviate financial stress, mainly associated with farm business income, on farm households through government farm program payments. The 1996 FAIR Act signaled the end of these payments and Congress decided that agricultural policy should be more market oriented. Using the Gini coefficient concept and a large farm-level dataset, this study investigates the impact of government payments on income inequality among farm households in nine farming resource regions of the U.S. Results indicate that distribution of income among farm households in the Fruitful Rim region was above the level of dispersion for all U.S. farm households; however, income inequality in the Heartland region was below the level of dispersion for all U.S. farm households. Finally, income from government farm programs helped reduce total income inequality in the Heartland and Northern Great Plains regions, while income from off-farm wages and/or salaries played an important role in reducing total income inequality in Basin and Range and Fruitful Rim regions of the U.S. farm sector.
KW - Adjusted Gini coefficient
KW - Farm resource regions
KW - Government farm program payments
KW - Income inequality
KW - Off-farm income
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jpolmod.2008.12.007
DO - 10.1016/j.jpolmod.2008.12.007
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:67349173239
SN - 0161-8938
VL - 31
SP - 325
EP - 340
JO - Journal of Policy Modeling
JF - Journal of Policy Modeling
IS - 3
ER -