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Income, Wealth, and the Economic Well-Being of Farm Households By Ashok K. Mishra, Hisham S. El-Osta, Mitchell J. Morehart, James D. Johnson, and Jeffrey W. Hopkins ERS Agricultural Economic Report No. AER812. 77 pp, July 2002 Agricultural policy is rooted in the 1930's notion that providing transfers of money to the farm sector translates into increased economic well-being of farm families. This report shows that neither change in income for the farm sector nor for any particular group of farm business can be presumed to reflect changes confronting farm households. Farm households draw income from various sources, including off-farm work, other businesses operated and, increasingly, nonfarm investments. Likewise, focus on a single indicator of well-being, such as income, overlooks other indicators such as the wealth held by the household and the level of consumption expenditures for health care, food, housing, and other items. Using an expanded definition of economic well-being, we show that farm households as a whole are better off than the average U.S. household, but that 6 percent remain economically disadvantaged. Keywords: farming, farm income, farm households, farm household wealth, off-farm work, farm typology, farm resource regions, operator age, operator education, household consumption, farm business, nonfarm income, arms, farm policy In this report ... Chapters are in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. Table of Contents, 488 kb Frontmatter, 526 kb Executive Summary, 507 kb Introduction, 494 kb Income and Well-Being of Farm Households, 554 kb Composition of Farm Household Income and Wealth , 540 kb Farm Household Heterogeneity, 690 kb Variability in Farm Household Income and Wealth, 912 kb Farm and Nonfarm Household Comparability, 504 kb Findings and Policy Implications, 1, 082 kb Appendix A, 1,004 kb References, 434 kb Entire report, 1,548 kb Order this report (stock #ERSAER812) web administration: webadmin@ers.usda.gov page updated: July 24, 2002

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