Effect of the family life cycle on the family farm scale in Southern China

Abstract

This study empirically analyses the impact of family life cycles on the family farm scale of rural households in Southern China. The ordered Probit modelling is applied to examine the survey data that comprise 2040 valid questionnaires distributed in 88 villages of the Fujian province in China. The family life cycle has a remarkable influence on the family farm scale as a whole. The numbers of children and farming people in a family have a positive significant effects on the family farm scale. In addition, the individual characteristics of female householders have significant effects on the family farm scale. Meanwhile, the family characteristics differ at five defined stages of the family life cycle. The study covers the gap in the literature on the effects of family structure on the rural household economic behaviour, in particular, on the impact of the family life cycles on the family farm scale.