Farmers and butchers in Switzerland both operate in shrinking sectors. The number of businesses and the sectoral turnover has decreased by about 40 per cent over the last twenty years for both sectors. It is, however, an interesting question whether the determinants of exit are the same for the...

The paper approaches the question of the role of the three different sectors in rural population development. A regression with data from 1606 rural Swiss municipalities shows that activity in the farming sector enhances population growth to a greater degree than activity in the industrial...

This paper presents a theoretical approach that explains farm household diversification decisions by the relative attractiveness of both food production and family businesses. The empirical analysis of diversified activities of Swiss farm households shows that a low household income leads to...

The aim of this paper is to approach the normative analysis of paternalistic laws. Our examples are restrictions on trade in agricultural land: a quantitative restriction in Switzerland and Germany and a fixed price range for lease land in France. We develop a normative framework from the...

The connection between average sectoral income, occupational choice and structural change has so far only been described vaguely for sectors dominated by small enterprises. Taking agriculture as an example, we first develop a theoretical model in which we explain the decision to take over a farm...