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Abstract
Farm transfer or succession by the “next generation” holds a place of central importance
in the determination of industry structure and total number of farmers and has profound
implications for farm families. The family farm sector relies heavily on intergenerational
succession. Succession and retirement are linked and reflective of the life cycles of
the farm household and the farm business. A large farm-level data set and a logistic
regression model were used to examine the determinants of farm succession decisions in
the United States, with special emphasis given to the treatment of endogenous wealth
and farm size variables. Results point to the importance of farmer’s age, educational
attainment of farm operators, off-farm work by the operator or operator and spouse,
expected household wealth, and farm business location on the decision to have succession
plans.