Employment Decisions of Farm Couples: Full‐Time or Part‐Time Farming?

Abstract

Off‐farm employment decisions of farm couples are analyzed with 1985 data from the S‐191 regional research project. The employment of one farm spouse is pos itively related to the off‐farm employment of the other spouse. Wives' off‐farm employment is most closely related to their personal characteristics, whereas husbands' decisions are best predicted by a combination of farm, family, and personal characteristics. These results were consistent regardless of whether hus bands and wives were studied separately or jointly with canonical discriminant function analyses. Part‐time farms are more likely to have the wife employed off the farm, thereby making the husband responsible for the daily operation of the farm. Wives on part‐time farms seem to substitute on the farm for their employed husbands, but husbands do not substitute as well for their employed wives. Wives simply add to their responsibilities rather than shifting them to others in the farm family.