DO AGRICULTURAL HOUSEHOLDS USE INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION AS AN INCOME DIVERSIFICATION STRATEGY?

Many agricultural households in developing countries depend on international migration and nonfarm work to cope with the economic risks and uncertainty associated with farming. We examine the effects of international migration and remittances on rural households’ participation in nonfarm jobs and the earnings generated from these jobs. Using data on agricultural households in Albania, results indicate that remittances received from migrant household members induce reallocation of household labor to nonfarm self-employment jobs, and increase income from at-home farming. Overall, international migration contributes to rural development in Albania through the positive impact of remittances on households’ ability to diversify income and reduce income risks associated with farmin

Estimating Danish Consumers’ Preference for Organic Foods: Application of a Generalized Differential Demand System

A generalized differential demand system is used to provide a detailed demand system analysis of the organic food industry in Denmark to estimate conditional expenditure and price elasticities. The results suggest that cereals, dairy and other organic food aggregates are highly price-inelastic with the exception of the group, fruits and vegetables (FV), which is almost price unitary-elastic holding real income constant or price elastic holding nominal income constant. Also, cereals, FV, and other organic food aggregates are expenditure elastic. Dairy on the other hand is expenditure inelastic. Further, our calculated Morishima elasticity of substitution from the conditional compensated price elasticity estimates suggest that Danish organic consumers are more willing to substitute away from FV given a change in its relative price. The policy implications of the results are then addressed in the face of Danish organic conversion subsidy program

International Migration, Remittance Income, and Income Diversification Strategies among Rural Farm Households in Transitional Albania

The overarching consensus in the applied migration literature is that international migration is typically used to transition out of agricultural sector by rural households in transition economies. In this paper, using data on rural Albanian households, we examine whether international migration of some household members affects the household’s nonfarm activity choices and earnings generated from these activities. In addition, we test whether remittance income received from migrant household members have an indirect effect on households’ agricultural production. We find no apparent relationship between nonfarm activity choice and the number of international migrants in the farm household. However, we find that remittance income is positively and significantly related to households’ propensity to reallocate farm labor to nonfarm self-employment activities, resulting in higher income from non-farm self-employment. In addition, remittance income affects farm income in a positive and significant way. This suggests that previous studies likely underestimated the overall impact of international migration on agricultural production in rural Albania, as they usually ignored the additional remittance income effect. Overall, our empirical findings support the basic tenets of rural income diversification, where the farm household has a diversified portfolio of income-generating activities, in addition to farming. The results suggest that international migration facilitates income diversification among Albanian farm households rather than their exit out of agriculture

DO AGRICULTURAL HOUSEHOLDS USE INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION AS AN INCOME DIVERSIFICATION STRATEGY?

Many agricultural households in developing countries depend on international migration and nonfarm work to cope with the economic risks and uncertainty associated with farming. We examine the effects of international migration and remittances on rural households’ participation in nonfarm jobs and the earnings generated from these jobs. Using data on agricultural households in Albania, results indicate that remittances received from migrant household members induce reallocation of household labor to nonfarm self-employment jobs, and increase income from at-home farming. Overall, international migration contributes to rural development in Albania through the positive impact of remittances on households’ ability to diversify income and reduce income risks associated with farmin

Impact of International Remittance on Out-Farm Labor Migration in Developing Countries: A Dynamic Panel Data Analysis

This study examines the impact of remittances inflows on inter-sectoral migration of farm labor toward the non-agricultural sector. Using a panel of 77 developing countries over the period 1991–2010, we find two opposing effects of remittances on out-farm migration of labor. First, remittances slow down the out-farm migration rates by supplementing farm income and consumption expenditures. Second, remittances provide a source of investment in out-farm activities that increase the rate of migration out of agriculture over time. Combining these effects, our estimates indicate that a 100 percent increase in remittances reduces the migration out of agriculture by 10 percent over time. A major policy issue facing leaders in the developing world is whether international migration, through remittances, contributes to the development process in migrant-sending communities or impedes the efficient allocation of labor and human capital at origin countries. Our results indicate that international migrant remittances help slow the rate of out-farm labor migration through its supplemental income effect; remittances help finance farm households’ consumption expenditures, thereby eliminating the need to move to non-agricultural jobs

Consumer Demand for Organic Food Groups and Implications for Farmers’ Revenues under the Organic Land Subsidy Scheme: The Case of Denmark

We fit a family of differential demand systems to Danish organic food data and use the selected model’s parameters to calculate conditional expenditure and price elasticities for five organic food groups (cereals, meats, dairy products, fruits and vegetables, and other organic foods) to evaluate the implications of the Danish Organic Land Subsidy Scheme for organic farmers. Simulations indicate that, without conversion subsidies, producers of the five organic food groups would have experienced disproportionate changes in revenues due to higher nonsubsidized organic food prices. Producers of meats and other organic foods would lose most in revenues, followed by fruit and vegetable producers

Consumer Demand for Organic Food Groups and Implications for Farmers’ Revenues under the Organic Land Subsidy Scheme: The Case of Denmark

We fit a family of differential demand systems to Danish organic food data and use the selected model’s parameters to calculate conditional expenditure and price elasticities for five organic food groups (cereals, meats, dairy products, fruits and vegetables, and other organic foods) to evaluate the implications of the Danish Organic Land Subsidy Scheme for organic farmers. Simulations indicate that, without conversion subsidies, producers of the five organic food groups would have experienced disproportionate changes in revenues due to higher nonsubsidized organic food prices. Producers of meats and other organic foods would lose most in revenues, followed by fruit and vegetable producers