摘要：This paper documents in detail the differences between farm household and nonfarm household wealth structure and attempts to shed light on potential explanations for the differences. Particular attention is paid to households at or near retirement. A better understanding of farm household wealth should be useful in the farm policy debate. Knowledge concerning the level and structure of farm household wealth is relevant to the decision of whether to transfer wealth and income from nonfarm households to farm households. Furthermore, knowledge of the determinants of farm household wealth should help determine policy designed to affect farmers' saving decisions. Whether an average farmer's wealth at retirement is largely determined by income and/or circumstances beyond his control as opposed to the decision of how much to save is an important policy question. If retirement wealth is relatively unaffected by the saving decision, policies designed to promote wealth accumulation through promoting saving (e.g., estate tax repeal) will be ineffective (see Venti and Wise (2000) for more on this point).
