How Does Economic Crisis Affect Income Inequality of the Farm Households? -Empirical Evidence of Farm Household Analysis in Taiwan

How Does Economic Crisis Affect Income Inequality of the Farm Households? -Empirical Evidence of Farm Household Analysis in Taiwan

Economic crisis had hit the economy since 2008, and expressed concerns have been paid to examine the impacts on the general economy. However, little is known among farmers. This paper contributes to this issue by assessing the impacts of the change in income inequality among farm households. Using a decomposition method on a national household survey data in Taiwan between 2007 and 2008, results indicate that the coupled and decoupled government payments reduce the income inequality income. In contract, farm and nonfarm income positively contributes to income inequality. During the period of economic recession, farm income tends to reduce the income inequality among the part-time farms. Nonfarm income results in an increase in income inequality among the full-time farms.