PR - PRODUCTIVITY BY AGE OVER EIGHT U.S. CENSUS YEARS

Abstract:
The productivities of farmers by age group for each of the previous eight U.S. agricultural census years were estimated by Tornqvist productivity indices. Productivity increases with age, peaks at mid‐life and then decreases by age for each census year. This concave productivity pattern appears to be muted in the last census years of 2007 and 2012, such that the productivity increase and then decrease is not as large as in previous census years.

If older farmers had not experienced decreases in productivity, U.S. agricultural output in 2012 would have been 5.66 percent greater.

Keywords: farmer age, farmer productivity