Motivations to work off-farm among U.S. farm women

• We examine factors affecting motivations to participate in off-farm work among farm women in the U.S.
• The role of motivations to participate in off-farm labor market is investigated using ordered probit models.
• Motivations are found to be influenced by individual, household, farm and local labor market characteristics.

Women work off-farm for numerous reasons, ranging from supporting the farm or household financially, meeting people, and having an independent source of income. But very few studies have analyzed factors affecting motivations, and impacts of these motivations on individual behavior, e.g., the decision to engage in off-farm employment. This paper examines factors affecting motivations for off-farm work among farm women in the U.S., estimating ordered probit models corrected for sample selection bias for the motivation choices. Our findings are consistent with the idea that motivations do matter in explaining the impact of various (individual, family, farm and labor market) characteristics on labor participation.