Policy regimes, agrarian institutions, and the performance of smallholder agriculture in Chile: Three essays analyzing longitudinal survey data on Chilean peasant farms (1986 to 1995)

This dissertation consists of three essays examining the economic: performance of Chilean smallholders during the years 1986 to 1995. Each essay makes use of data from a longitudinal survey of small farm families from a southern province of Chile. The first chapter provides a broad overview of the geographic, economic, and policy context in which Chilean smallholders operate. The validity of survey responses is established through comparison of means and trends portrayed in the survey data with data from earlier research and official statistics. Overall, the 1986 to 1995 period saw the average agricultural income of surveyed farms fall while total family incomes increased. A fall in real agricultural prices had a deleterious effect on the incomes of small commercial farms surveyed. Subsistence oriented and wage dependent households fared better. The incidence of poverty among surveyed farms fell due to increased earnings from off-farm employment and increased receipt of public social welfare payments among surveyed families. Farm dissolution proceeded at a rate of ten percent between 1986 and 1995. Income changes among surveyed farms suggest income equality increased across the small farms surveyed during these years. Considered in the context of broader economic trends in Chile during this period, the gains in total income registered among surveyed small farms seem modest. This suggests that smallholders have been marginalized from the broader growth trend in the Chilean economy.;Chapter Two of the dissertation examines the effect of a government sponsored technology transfer program for smallholder farms in Chile. The effect of family participation in the technology transfer program is evaluated with respect to a number of 'outcomes' including its effect on farm revenues, total family income, and household poverty status. The empirical examination uses maximum likelihood selection and fixed- and random-effects estimation techniques. By estimating the effect of program participation on crop selection, crop yields, farm application of fertilizer and use of certified seeds, and the scale of farming activities, the research examines the mechanisms through which the program appears to raise farm revenues. Estimation results show program participation had a positive and significant effect on farm revenues and total family income. The program prompted farmers to adopt nitrogen fixing bean crops, but did not have significant effects on crop yields or the likelihood a farm planted certified seeds or applied fertilizer. The primary mechanism through which the program increased farm income was by increasing the intensive scale of farming pursued by participants.;Chapter Three considers the interrelation of land lease and labor market activities of agricultural households facing factor market constraints. An analytical model built on the neoclassical agricultural household framework is developed. Comparative static properties of the model are used to formulate hypotheses concerning the effect of constraints on off-farm labor supply and hiring of non-family workers, and the interdependence of household land lease and labor market activities. Estimable forms of the labor supply and demand equations are derived from the model. Empirical examination of the labor market activities of small farm households applies tobit and fixed-effects tobit estimation. Estimation results fail to support the hypothesis that the labor supply of surveyed farms is affected by the farms' land leasing. The amount of land leased by the household had a positive statistically significant effect on labor demand.