The design of rural development policies and government programmes in support of farm operations and farm households relies on precise estimates of off-farm labour supply elasticities. However, the wide variation in estimates dilutes their power to predict the magnitude of these targeted interventions. We perform a meta-analysis of estimates of off-farm labour supply elasticity to identify systematic factors that influence these estimates. A sample of 137 elasticities is obtained from 43 studies which use data ranging from 1960 to 2012. We examine theoretical assumptions, data availability and empirical specifications, and other study-specific characteristics. Controlling for potential publication bias, we estimate that the elasticity is approximately 0.64 to 0.77. Results of the analysis show that estimates are affected by modelling choices controlling for self-selection and life-cycle elements. However, we found no compelling evidence that study-specific characteristics of off-farm labour supply functions, including various measurements of labour supply, explain variation in the elasticities.

中文翻译：

---

理解非农劳动力供应弹性估计的变化：荟萃分析

支持农场经营和农户的农村发展政策和政府计划的设计依赖于对非农劳动力供应弹性的精确估计。然而，估计的广泛差异削弱了他们预测这些有针对性的干预措施规模的能力。我们对非农劳动力供应弹性的估计值进行元分析，以确定影响这些估计值的系统性因素。从使用 1960 年至 2012 年数据的 43 项研究中获得了 137 项弹性样本。我们检查了理论假设、数据可用性和实证规范，以及其他研究特定特征。控制潜在的发表偏倚后，我们估计弹性约为 0.64 至 0.77。分析结果表明，估计受控制自选择和生命周期元素的建模选择的影响。然而，我们没有发现令人信服的证据表明，研究非农劳动力供应函数的特定特征（包括劳动力供应的各种测量）可以解释弹性的变化。