Farm work, off-farm work, and hired farm labour: estimating a discrete-choice model of French farm couples' labour decisions

We model jointly several types of discrete-choice labour decisions of farm couples: farm work, off-farm work and hired farm labour. Rather than estimating a set of reduced-form participation equations that is subject to an internal inconsistency problem, we estimate a 16-choice multinomial model. We find that farm labour of operators and of spouses are substitutes. Hired farm labour increases with the farmer's qualifications, perhaps substituting for the couple's labour inputs. Other adults in the household substitute for the farm labour input of the farm couple and hired workers. We find that the organisation of work by French farm households has changed over time, in the direction of a more equal sharing of tasks and responsibilities between members of the farm family.