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Returns from Income Strategies in Rural Poland

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  • Falkowski, Jan
  • Jakubowski, Maciej
  • Strawinski, Pawel

Abstract

In order to stabilise and improve their income situation, rural households are strongly encouraged to diversify their activities both within and outside the agricultural sector. Often, however, this advice is only moderately pursued. This paper addresses issues of rural household income diversification in the case of Poland. It investigates returns from rural household income strategies using propensity score matching methods and extensive datasets spanning 1998-2008. Results suggest that returns from combining farm and off-farm activities were lower than returns from concentrating on farming or on self-employment outside agriculture. This differential is stable over time although returns from diversification have relatively improved after Poland’s accession to the EU. This is also visible in the fact that since 2006 returns from combining farm and off-farm activities have evened with returns from relying solely on hired off-farm labour, thus smoothing the difference observed before the accession. Further, over the analysed period, households pursuing the diversification strategy performed better than those relying solely on unearned income. Finally, in general, the income in households combining farm and off-farm activities was higher than in those combining two off-farm income sources.

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  • Falkowski, Jan & Jakubowski, Maciej & Strawinski, Pawel, 2013. "Returns from Income Strategies in Rural Poland," Factor Markets Working Papers 178, Centre for European Policy Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:eps:fmwppr:178
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    Cited by:

    1. Janda Karel & Rausser Gordon & Strielkowski Wadim, 2013. "Determinants of Profitability of Polish Rural Micro-Enterprises at the Time of EU Accession," Eastern European Countryside, Sciendo, vol. 19(2013), pages 177-217, December.
    2. Jan Fałkowski & Agata Malak-Rawlikowska & Dominika Milczarek-Andrzejewska, 2013. "Determinants and Consequences of Participating in a Restructured Supply Chain: the Experience of the Dairy Sector in Poland," Ekonomia journal, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw, vol. 34.
    3. Janda, Karel & Strielkowski, Wadim & Rausser, Gordon, 2013. "Determinants of profitability of Polish rural micro-enterprises," MPRA Paper 52771, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • Q12 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets

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