A supply-side analysis of agritourism: Evidence from farm-level agriculture census data in Taiwan

Abstract

Due to consumers’ increased demand for leisure and farmers’ need for income diversification, researchers and policymakers have significant interest in topics related to agritourism. This study provides a supply-side analysis on agritourism using Taiwan as a case study. Utilising a sample of 720,148 family farms from the 2010 agriculture census survey in Taiwan, we quantify the effects of engaging in the agritourism business on farm income, on farm succession, and on family members’ labour supply decisions between on-farm and off-farm work. An analytical framework that combines the doubly robustness regression model and semiparametric estimation is proposed to address the endogeneity bias. Results indicate that participation in agritourism increases farm income and family farm succession. Farms engaging in agritourism also have more family members working on the farm, and fewer family members working off-farm, compared to farms not engaging in agritourism. Although agritourism enterprises are developed to meet consumers’ demand for leisure, our results show that they also improve the economic welfare of farm households.