Consistent Aggregation of Family and Hired Labor in Agricultural Production Functions

Abstract

An estimated production function for the Muda river valley in Malaysia is used to examine three issues: (1) whether or not labor marginal product is zero, (2) whether or not farm households allocate resources efficiently and (3) whether or not agricultural labor markets are characterized by dualism. In areas where an active labor market exists the first two of these issues may be closely related to the third if family and hired labor can be considered separate factors of production. This study shows that if the labor aggregate is defined as the sum of family and hired labor the resulting production function estimate will be subject to specification bias which will render empirical tests of the issues mentioned invalid. Using separate variables for family and hired labor it is shown that the marginal product of family labor is positive and significantly different from zero and that farms are approximately allocatively efficient. The study does find, however, some substantiation for a mild degree of dualism in the labor market.