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The Dynamics of Wealth Concentration Among Farm Operator Households

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2016

Hisham S. El-Osta  and
Mitchell J. Morehart
Hisham S. El-Osta
Affiliation:
Resource Economics Division, Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Mitchell J. Morehart
Affiliation:
Resource Economics Division, Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture
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Abstract

The method of computing wealth shares accruing to lowest and highest quintiles, along with the concepts of the Lorenz curve and the Gini coefficient, are used in conjunction with data from the 1996 and 1999 Agricultural Resource Management Study (ARMS) survey to measure the distribution of wealth among U.S. farm operator households. Findings show that the distribution of wealth in 1996 was slightly more concentrated than in 1999, with the farm wealth component contributing significantly more toward measured concentration in both years than the nonfarm wealth component. The robustness of the findings under varied value judgments concerning society's level of aversion to wealth concentration is also examined.

Keywords

Agricultural Resource Management Studydistribution of farm wealthextended Gini coefficientLorenz curvesocial welfare function
Type
Articles
Information
Agricultural and Resource Economics Review , Volume 31 , Issue 1 , April 2002 , pp. 84 - 96
Copyright
Copyright © 2002 Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association 

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