This paper uses microlevel data from the Agricultural Resource Management
Survey to examine the changes in the distributions of household wealth and
to assess the role farm subsidies play, among other factors, in affecting
these distributions. The empirical analysis relies on the concept of the
adjusted Gini coefficient and on fixed-effect regression procedures.
Coefficients from fixed-effects estimation indicate a negative correlation
between government payments and wealth dispersion, with the effect shifting
toward more of a positive relation when government payments were allowed to
interact with regional dummies.