| Abstract: |
Farm operators and spouses have increasingly engaged in off-farm work in
recent years. Many studies have analyzed the role of government payments;
however, little is known about the impact of health insurance coverage. This
study builds on previous literature by using copulas to test for dependence in
the labor allocation decisions of the operator and spouse, addressing the
importance of fringe benefits to the farm household, and determining how these
considerations affect our knowledge of the impact of government payments on
off-farm labor. The results indicate that the off-farm hours worked by the
operator and spouse are dependent. We then find significant evidence of
endogeneity in the health insurance coverage variable. Using the predicted
probability of insurance coverage, we find a positive and highly significant
relationship with the hours worked off-farm. Further, we find that both
coupled and decoupled payments are negatively correlated with the hours worked
off-farm. |
| Keywords: |
Health insurance coverage, endogeneity, copula, off-farm labor supply, dependence, bivariate tobit, coupled farm programs payments, decoupled farm program payments, Agribusiness, Farm Management, Food Security and Poverty, Labor and Human Capital, Public Economics, C34, I13, J12, J22, J38, J43, Q12, Q18, |