Chinese Agricultural Household

This dissertation deals with the off-farm laborsupply of Chinese agricultural households.The first objectiveexplores the relationship between the farm operators'off-farm labor supply and the household's farmingefficiency.The theoretical model predicts an inverserelationship between farming efficiency and off-farmlabor supply. However, the empirical results showthat the agricultural production technical efficiencyexhibitsno significant effect on off-farm labor supply. Thereappears to be a surplus of labor in the agrariansector in China. Restrictions on the movement oflabor among regions and in the reallocation offarmland serve to maintain this surplus and thusbring about economic inefficiencies.The second objective investigates the switchingnature of the operator's off-farm labor supplydepending on the spouse's participation status inoff-farm labor markets. The off-farm laborsupply behavior of operators with spouses workingoff-farm exhibits some differences from that of theoperators with spouses' not working off-farm. Theresults support that the agricultural household is amore relevant decision unit for resource allocationthan is its individual members.

Autorentext
Tao Zeng received her Ph.D. of Economics from North CarolinaState University.Barry K.Goodwin is William Neal ReynoldsDistinguished Professor in the Departments of Economics andAgricultural and Resource Economics at North Carolina StateUniversity.

Klappentext
This dissertation deals with the off-farm labor supply of Chinese agricultural households. The first objective explores the relationship between the farm operators' off-farm labor supply and the household's farming efficiency. The theoretical model predicts an inverse relationship between farming efficiency and off-farm labor supply. However, the empirical results show that the agricultural production technical efficiency exhibits no significant effect on off-farm labor supply. There appears to be a surplus of labor in the agrarian sector in China. Restrictions on the movement of labor among regions and in the reallocation of farmland serve to maintain this surplus and thus bring about economic inefficiencies. The second objective investigates the switching nature of the operator's off-farm labor supply depending on the spouse's participation status in off-farm labor markets. The off-farm labor supply behavior of operators with spouses working off-farm exhibits some differences from that of the operators with spouses' not working off-farm. The results support that the agricultural household is a more relevant decision unit for resource allocation than is its individual members.