Why farmers quit: A county-level analysis.(Statistical Data Included) From: American Journal of Agricultural Economics | Date: November 1, 2001| Author: Goetz, Stephan J.; Debertin, David L. | COPYRIGHT 2001 American Agricultural Economics Association. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

We identify the effects of alternative explanatory variables on the propensity of U.S. farmers to cease farming, with a particular emphasis on understanding the roles of off-farm employment and federal farm program payments. Conventional ordinary least squares analysis using all counties suggests that off-farm employment has no statistical effect on the (net) number of farmers quilting between 1987 and 1997, ceteris paribus. A more refined analysis, which separates counties losing farmers f...