Impacts of socio-economic factors on farm household dynamics - empirical survey data in an agent-based model application

This paper addresses three issues of socio-economic factors of Hungarian farm households and their impacts on structural change. This concerns the role of age as a factor influencing the opportunity costs of labour, the impact of empirical age patterns on structural change, and the role of a varied probability of young farm successors entering into the farming business. Results of a farm household survey are integrated in simulation experiments with the agent-based model AgriPoliS which has been adapted to a Hungarian case study region. It could be shown that impediments of a flexible labour adjustment slow down structural change while the timing of persisting or exiting of farms highly depends on the age distribution of farmers.