Labour on the Family Farm: a Theory under Uncertainty

This paper develops a theory of the family farm in conditions of uncertainty where attention is focussed on the labour-input decisions. Specifically, the farm family is faced with two labour decisions, namely with respect to hired labour and to family labour. The framework for analysis is expected utility maximisation. The analysis has implications for agricultural policy since policy pronouncements of economists are typically based on models which assume perfect certainty. These pronouncements do not survive the incorporation of uncertainty.