Abstract

FERNANDEZ OLMOS, Marta  and  MARIN VINUESA, Luz María. Estudio del agente-principal en la agricultura. El trimestre econ [online]. 2009, vol.76, n.304, pp.941-964.  Epub Nov 20, 2020. ISSN 2448-718X.

Should a landlord adopt a wage labor, a crop sharing or a fixed-payment land rental contract with a particular tenant? The emergence of the agency theory to the contract choice in the 1970s and 1980s has generated a substantial body of theoretical and empirical research on why and under what conditions each contract is chosen. This paper reviews the literature on the contractual arrangements in agriculture, focusing on the principal-agent theory. After reviewing the agency theory we provide a synthesis and integration of the main contributions to contract choice in agriculture, highlighting current controversies over results. We find this theory provides a coherent and useful framework to answer share cropping questions, but we also observe that there is weak empirical support for many of the central tenets of agency theory that need to be addressed. Finally, we discuss the implications of these issues and outlining directions for future theoretical and empirical work.

Keywords : teoría del principal agente; aparcería; selección contractual.

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