Off- and on-farm labour participation in Italian farms

Most farms are family business, both in developed and developing countries. Labour allocation choices of farm household members are therefore relevant both for production choices in the farm and for rural labour markets. In particular, off-farm work and combination of on- and off-farm work (pluriactivity) are viewed as an efficient allocation of household labour resources. Moreover, labour choice of the children of the farm household are relevant for farm succession. In this paper we extend previous literature by estimating in an unified framework labour participation choices both for on- and off-farm work for operators, spouses, and their eldest children in working age, using a five-equation multivariate probit.