Is Farm Size Converging? Evidence from Nonparametric Estimations for 2002

This study investigates convergence in farm size for the period, 1982-1992. Mood's median test is applied to test the hypothesis that the distribution of farm size is equal across 1982, 1987, and 1992. Markov chain model is further applied to characterize the long run tendency of farm size distributions. The findings for the Northeast suggest that (i)the region had equal distributions of farm size during the period 1982-1992, (ii) per farm land acerage converged toward the regional average, and (iii) per farm real sales converged toward a level lower than the regional average. Overall, limiting probabilities to characterize the long run tendency of farm size imply that size measured by real sales overshoots (undershoots) size measured by farmland in classes below (above) the regional average