Impact of off-farm labor supply on food expenditures of the farm household

Farm households diversify their income sources by working off the farm. This is a risk management strategy that is used by farm households in both developed and developing countries. Income diversification via off-farm work is associated with higher incomes and food consumption. However, little is known about the association between off-farm work and farm household food expenditures. In an effort to bridge this gap, this study attempts to assess the impact of off-farm work decisions by the operator and/or the spouse on the food expenditures of the farm household. Using a nationwide farm household survey in the United States and new econometric method, we find that the decisions of the operator and/or the spouse to work off the farm are significantly interrelated (29%). However, these two decisions affect food expenditures in different ways. The operator’s off-farm work decision is positively related to food expenditures, while the spouse’s decision is negatively associated with expenditures on food by the farm household.     

Does accounting conservatism deter short sellers?

Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting - We examine the impact of the corporate information environment on short selling by testing the relationship between short interest and accounting...     

Ein Risikostrukturausgleich für die Bundesländer

In Germany, a lively debate about the reform of the financial equalisation scheme between the member states (“Länder”) is under way. There is broad consensus that the member states’ financial responsibility has to be strengthened. A reduction of the transfer level of tax receipts from high-income to low-income states could achieve this objective, but at the cost of solidarity between states. To avoid this trade-off, the authors propose an indicator-based risk adjustment scheme. Their aim is to equalise different financial needs, not only differences in tax revenues across states. Risk adjustment schemes are a well-established instrument, especially in social health care systems.     

Impact of off‐farm income on food expenditures in rural Bangladesh: an unconditional quantile regression approach

This study examines the effects of off‐farm income on food expenditures of rural Bangladeshi households. Our analysis yields unbiased estimates of the unconditional impact of off‐farm income on food expenditures and reveals the heterogeneous effects that occur across the distribution of total food consumption expenditures. The findings suggest that the impacts of off‐farm income are uniformly positive across the unconditional quantile regression and significantly increase food consumption expenditures for all quantiles, except for the 25th quantile. In addition, we found that schooling, experience, and location of the household increase the food expenditures of rural households. Most importantly, this article argues that female‐headed rural households in which the female works off the farm tend to have significantly lower food expenditures.     

Determinants of economic well-being among U.S. farm operator households

Participation in government programs has a mild impact on the economic well‐being of U.S. farm households. Major factors that determine farm household prosperity are the primary operator's education level and ethnicity, education level of the spouse, and other characteristics such as forward purchasing of inputs, use of contract shipping of products, having a succession plan, farm ownership, and location in a metro area. This article uses the 2001 Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS) as well as relative and an absolute measure to assess U.S. farm households' economic well‐being. The relative measure compares the income and wealth position of farm households relative to median income and median wealth of the general population. The absolute measure adds annualized wealth to a farm household's income.     

Off‐farm employment and reasons for entering farming as determinants of production enterprise selection in US agriculture

In today’s agriculture, farmers consider off‐farm employment and lifestyle goals in complex ways to select production enterprises. Data from USDA’s Agricultural Resource Management Survey were used to examine how off‐farm employment and ‘reasons for entering farming’ influence production enterprise selection in US agriculture. A two‐stage analysis with a multivariate tobit model was used to examine the impact of off‐farm employment as influenced by government farm programme payments, reasons for entering farming, demographics and location on production enterprise selection. Results underscore the impacts of reasons for entering farming and off‐farm employment on production enterprise choice and provide implications for policy development. The study highlights the importance of government farm programme payments in production enterprise selection by US farmers.     

Credit Fluctuations and Lodging Firms: An Investigation of the Differing Capital Structures in the U.S. Lodging Industry

In the area of corporate finance, decisions regarding the constituents of overall capital structure are the most critical. These financing decisions are even more critical to lodging firms because of the unique nature of the industry. This study empirically investigates the effect of credit availability on the leverage of the lodging industry in the U.S. using multivariate analysis of variance. Three time points of differing credit availability (low, high, and average) were identified using the Case-Shiller home price index. Leverage, net leverage, and short-to-long-term debt ratios of large and small U.S. lodging firms were analyzed at these differing credit availability time points to assess any significant differences. Significant effects of credit availability were found on the leverage and net leverage of lodging firms, but no significant effect was found on the short- to long-term debt ratio of U.S. lodging firms. Interestingly, the leverage levels were found to be highest at the average availability of credit than when compared to the high and low availability of credit.