Organizational and contract economics have achieved an increasingly important role in analyses of the food, agribusiness, and agricultural sectors. In particular, formal theoretical models of contract design and firm integration have begun to appear in the leading agricultural economics...

We empirically test the effect of separating ownership and control and its interaction with farmer effort on farm success using USDA-ARMS data. We use a two-stage least squares approach and instrumental variables that proxy participation constraints to binding incentive contracts. We find the...