Modeling the Determinants of Semi-Subsistent and Commercial Land Uses in an Agricultural Frontier of Southern Mexico: A Switching Regression Approach

The authors analyze the consequences of imperfect output markets for the land-use decisions of semi-subsistence farmers in an agricultural frontier of southern Mexico. The approach is motivated by previous applications of the agriculture household model establishing that the farm household’s productionand consumptiondecisions are analytically nonseparable when markets are not used. Econometric results generated by a switching regression model suggest the importanceof distinguishing the discrete choiceof market participation from thatof area cultivated.