Economic Well-Being of Farm Households

Carol Jones , Hisham El-Osta ; Robert Green

United States Department of Agriculture

关键词: Farm households;    household income;    household wealth;    household net worth;    living expenses;    joint income-wealth indicator;    economic well-being;    financial well-being;    Off-farm employment;    Income variability;   

RP-ID  :  EB-7

学科分类：农业科学（综合）

美国|英语

来源: United States Department of Agriculture Publications

【 摘 要 】

Farm subsidy programs were introduced in the 1930s largely due to concern for chronically low, and highly variable, incomes of US farm households. Today commodity-based support programs are still prominent, though income and wealth of the average farm household now exceed that of the average nonfarm households - by a large margin. Farm income continues to be highly variable, but the small set of farm households most at risk for income variability - because farm income represents more than one-third of household income - are those operating large farms. And they have substantial net worth, which cushions uncertain farm income.