This article presents evidence of misallocation across households in rural Indian agriculture. I show that household demographics predict own farm labor demand for smallholder farmers but not non-smallholder farmers. A simple model of labor allocation predicts a clear consequence of this duality: smallholder farmers will reallocate labor across plots less in response to price changes than non-smallholders. Detailed household panel data confirms this theoretical prediction. Three additional facts suggest that a lack of off-farm labor opportunities may be partly responsible for the behavior of smallholders, leading smallholders to over allocate labor to agricultural production. First, smallholders report fewer hours of involuntary unemployment when their own crop prices increase. Second, yield is substantially higher for smallholders on plots of the same size. Finally, estimated marginal revenue products of labor are consistently lower for smallholders.

中文翻译：

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劳动力弹性、市场失灵和配置不当：来自印度农业的证据

本文提供了印度农村农业家庭之间分配不当的证据。我表明，家庭人口统计数据可以预测小农的自有农场劳动力需求，但不能预测非小农的需求。一个简单的劳动力分配模型预测了这种二元性的一个明显后果：与非小农相比，小农在地块之间重新分配劳动力对价格变化的反应较少。详细的家庭面板数据证实了这一理论预测。另外三个事实表明，缺乏非农劳动力机会可能是小农行为的部分原因，导致小农将劳动力过度分配到农业生产中。首先，当小农自己的农作物价格上涨时，他们报告的非自愿失业时间会减少。第二，在相同面积的地块上，小农的产量要高得多。最后，小农的劳动力边际收入产品估计始终较低。