How Valuable Is On-Farm Work to Farmers?

In this article, we estimate a rural household model that allows specific tastes for working on-farm and can fit the data as well as the general model of Lopez. We use two samples that are matched by individual characteristics and adopt the method for matched surveys proposed by Arellano and Meghir. We replicate using French data, the empirical finding of Elhorst who reports evidence that implicit wages of on-farm family labor are significantly below off-farm wages. We then provide estimates of the lower bounds for preferences for on-farm work for males and females which are significant and positive. Copyright 2004, Oxford University Press.