Rural households' decisions towards income diversification: Evidence from a township in northern China

Economic reforms in rural China have brought opportunities to diversify both within-farm activities and off-farm activities. Participation in these activities plays an important role in increasing rural households' income. This paper analyzes the factors that drive rural households and individuals in their income-source diversification choices in a Northern China township. At the household level, we distinguish three types of diversification as opposed to grain production only: within-farm (non-grain production) activities, local off-farm activities, and migration. We find that land availability stimulates on-farm diversification. Local off-farm activities are mostly driven by households' asset positions and working resources, while migration decisions strongly depend on the household size and composition. At the individual level, we analyze the determinants of participation in three different types of jobs as compared to agricultural work: local off-farm employment, local self-employment and migration. We find a clear gender and age bias in access to off-farm activities that are mostly undertaken by male and by young people. The households' asset positions as well as village networks are found to strongly affect participation in off-farm activities.     

Rural Nonfarm Activities and Poverty in the Brazilian Northeast

This paper combines two complementary data sets to present a disaggregated spatial profile of poverty in the Brazilian Northeast, and to investigate the importance of nonagricultural activities for its rural dwellers. We present both univariate and multivariate profiles of nonagricultural employment and discuss its determinants. While the main occupational difference between the rural poor and the rural nonpoor in Brazil seems to be the greater reliance of the former on paid agricultural employment (vis-à-vis own cultivation), rather than access to nonagricultural activities, the evidence nevertheless suggests that diversification into this growing sector provides both an important complement to the budgets of the poor, and possibly a self-insurance mechanism against negative shocks. Despite the substantial heterogeneity of the sector, two general findings are robust: returns to education are comparatively high; and location in relation to urban areas is an important determinant of both employment and earnings in rural nonagricultural activities.     

Factor reallocation and structural transformation implications of grain subsidies in China

Since agriculture has contributed significantly to China’s economic growth miracle, it is important to understand the contributions and determinants of agriculture related to different agricultural policies in structural transformation in China. However, as one of the most important agricultural policies in China, the effects of the grain subsidy policy on factor reallocation, economic growth, as well as agricultural and non-agricultural production have not been investigated systematically and comprehensively. The absence of using an economy-wide model to estimate the impacts of the grain subsidy policy in China leaves a vacuum in the policy-advising space. This research develops a dynamic single-country, multi-regional computable general equilibrium model of the Chinese economy to evaluate the historical impacts of the grain subsidy policy. Our results reveal that grain subsidies impede the efficiency of factor reallocation and economic structural transformation in China. However, grain subsidies promote grain production growth and temporarily reduce rural-urban income disparity. In order to achieve the long-term sustainable increase in rural income and to mitigate the rural-urban income gap, China needs to further develop its labor-intensive industries (e.g., services) to accommodate the large number of rural labor transfers. Moreover, the large-scale agricultural production and technology improvement in agriculture are the effective measures to ensure food security in China.     

Access to Improved Water Sources and Rural Productivity: Analytical Framework and Cross‐country Evidence

Abstract: In this study we address the issue of access to drinking water in rural areas related to agricultural productivity performance. Considering an agricultural household model as our basic conceptual framework, we analyze the theoretical aspects of increasing the access rate to drinking water on agricultural productivity. First, we show that the increased access rate to drinking water is conducive to agricultural productivity due to increased intrinsic productivity of individuals and additional gain in time for agricultural production. Second, it transpires that the constraints on the access to drinking water may be costly in terms of decreased productivity and well‐being of rural people. Furthermore, based on a sample of 27 African countries over the period 1990–2010, estimation results do not reject the assumption that increasing access to drinking water has a positive effect on rural productivity growth. This positive effect is reinforced by the presence of a better sanitation system, even after controlling for country‐specific effects and for the characteristics of rural areas.     

农业创业情境下商业模式设计的影响机制研究——基于模糊集定性比较分析

农业创业者如何通过整合与管理资源与能力，设计新颖型商业模式创造更多价值，是实现乡村振兴战略的关键措施。文章基于资源编排、商业模式理论，以央视《致富经》栏目40个案例为样本，运用模糊集定性比较分析（fsQCA）方法，剖析资源编排、机会能力、创业学习所构成的前因变量组态对农业创业活动中商业模式设计的影响机制。研究发现，资源编排在农业创业活动中发挥不可或缺的关键作用；相较于资源结构化和资源捆绑，资源利用在新颖型商业模式设计中的作用更为突出；机会能力须与资源编排共同作用，方可实现新颖型商业模式设计；在资源编排作用缺乏时，创业学习的发挥有助于新颖型商业模式设计的形成。研究成果诠释了农业创业情境下资源编排、机会能力与创业学习对商业模式设计的影响机制，为开展农业创业活动提供指导。     

The Corn Price Surge: Impacts on Rural Mexico

We use an agent-based, general-equilibrium model to explore the impacts of world corn-price increases on land use and income in rural Mexico. In the model, interactions among heterogeneous agents within a local context shape both macro and microeconomic outcomes. Results suggest that subsistence activities allowed agriculture to absorb the shock, limiting the benefits of higher prices for the population while keeping deforestation pressures in check. An estimated 5.7% corn-area expansion by 2008 and wide variation across regions corresponds well with ex-post reports. Agricultural growth led to 0.02% and 3.9% increases in real income for rural households and absentee landholders, respectively.     

Public Expenditure,Growth and Poverty Reduction in Rural Uganda

Abstract: Using district‐level data for 1992, 1995, and 1999, the study estimated effects of different types of government expenditure on agricultural growth and rural poverty in Uganda. The results reveal that government spending on agricultural research and extension improved agricultural production substantially. This type of expenditure had the largest measured returns to growth in agricultural production. Agricultural research and extension spending also had the largest assessed impact on poverty reduction. Government spending on rural roads also had a substantial marginal impact on rural poverty reduction. The impact of low‐grade roads such as feeder roads is larger than that of high‐grade roads such as murram and tarmac roads. Education's effects rank after agricultural research and extension, and roads. Government spending in health did not show a large impact on growth in agricultural productivity or a reduction in rural poverty. Additional investments in the northern region (a poor region) contribute the most to reducing poverty. However, it is the western region (a relatively well‐developed region) where most types of investment have highest returns in terms of increased agricultural productivity.     

The effect of China's agricultural tax abolition on rural families' incomes and production

This paper uses the rural household panel data collected by Research Center for Rural Economy to evaluate the impacts of China's agricultural tax abolition during 2004–2005 on farmers' income and production behavior. We find that the abolition of agricultural tax did not significantly affect agricultural production. The effects on input use and productivity are also found statistically insignificant. All these are consistent with the lump-sum property of the tax and imply little effect of the tax abolition on relaxing credit constraints to farmers. Finally, we find that the tax abolition did not increase farmers' net income significantly.     

Impact of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area on China＇s International Agricultural Trade and Its Regional Development

This study aims to examine the impact of the China‐ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA) on China's international agricultural trade and its regional agricultural development, using the Global Trade Analysis Project model and the China Agricultural Decision Support System. Our analysis showed that: (i) CAFTA will improve resource allocation efficiencies for both China and ASEAN and will promote bilateral agricultural trade and, hence, will have positive effects on the economic development of both sides; (ii) CAFTA will accelerate China's export of the agricultural commodities in which it has comparative advantages, such as vegetables, wheat and horticultural products, but at the same time bring about a large increase in imports of commodities such as vegetable oil and sugar; and (iii) CAFTA will have significantly varying impacts on China's regional agricultural development because of large differences in the agricultural production structure in each region. Our results indicate that agriculture in the northern, northeastern and eastern regions of China will benefit from CAFTA, whereas agriculture development in southern China will suffer. Those regional specific impacts are quite different from the effects brought by multilateral free trade treaties, such as those of the WTO, which usually have positive effects on south China but negative impacts on the northern and western parts of China.     

Land,ladies, and the law: a case study on women's land rights and welfare in Southeast Asia in the nineteenth century†

This study evaluates women's de jure and de facto land rights and their implications for household welfare in nineteenth‐century Bangkok. Women constituted a significant share of agricultural landowners holding government‐issued land deeds in central Siam (now Thailand)—a pattern that stands in contrast to both historical and contemporary developing economy contexts where the structure of land rights often favours men. The findings show, through both direct and indirect evidence, that women's de jure rights were upheld in practice. Women made significantly more agricultural investments than male or mixed‐gender owners, which supports the assertion that women perceived their land rights as secure under Siam's traditional usufruct land rights system. An assessment of land‐related court cases directly supports our claim, showing that women in Siam had access to legal representation and were protected when their land rights were challenged by investors and local elites in the context of high demand for both agricultural and urban land. Such secure land rights helped preserve women's livelihoods as agriculturists and household well‐being. We estimate that the median female‐owned orchard could support 10 adults annually, achieving a standard of living comparable to unskilled labourer households in Beijing and Milan during the same period.     

Women and agricultural change in Latin America: Some concepts guiding research

We are not yet in a position to draw simple conclusions from the existing research literature in answer to the question of how the lives of rural women are affected by the processes of commercialization and capitalization in agriculture. The most serious problem inhibiting generalization has been the underlying conceptual and political differences among commentators. This article will explore and illuminate these conceptual differences, discuss the basic weaknesses of the ‘impact model’ (of agricultural change on women) most commonly adopted up to now, and indicate directions taken by alternative conceptualizations that stress the interplay of relations of gender with relations of class and ethnicity.     

Non‐farm Income Diversification in Rural Ghana: Patterns and Determinants

Abstract: Evidence abounds in the rural livelihoods literature that rural households do not only receive a significant proportion of their incomes from non‐farm sources, but also it is a significant source of employment for rural folks. This paper examines the pattern and determinants of non‐farm income diversification in rural Ghana. Results show that off‐farm income constituted 43 percent of rural household income in 2005/6. Female‐headed households tend to have larger off‐farm income shares compared to male‐headed households. Non‐farm income shares followed the same gender pattern albeit less pronounced. Unlike in Latin America and Asia, in rural Ghana, non‐farm self‐employment income is more important than non‐farm wage‐employment income. Regression results show that the gender composition of households, age, education, and access to credit, electricity and markets are important determinants of multiple non‐farm activities and non‐farm income. The findings call for strategies that can help rural households maximize the benefits from income diversification.     

Constraints in Access to and Demand for Rural Credit: Evidence from Uganda

Abstract: Like in most developing countries, Uganda's financial sector is largely underdeveloped and concentrated in urban areas, leaving the majority of the agricultural producers in the rural population with no access. However, agriculture forms a significant part of the lives of the rural households, who constitute about 85 per cent of the population. This study uses the Uganda household surveys conducted in 1992/93 and 1999/2000 to shed some light on access to, and the characteristics of demand for credit among the rural population. We employ the probit, tobit and multinomial logit model estimations and we analyse demand for credit and find that Uganda's credit market is highly segmented. The rural peasant producers are largely served by relatives/friends and self‐help credit associations and their loan applications are less likely to succeed, and of those that do, smaller loans are granted. The educated and the young are more likely to demand credit while women are less likely to, and to apply for smaller loans. Therefore, while government's agricultural modernization policy considers credit as an important input to its success and as the government plans to roll out the ‘wealth‐for‐all’ programme, more needs to be done to get credit to the sector and to ensure that it can be usefully utilized. Programmes to promote skills and vocational training to enhance production and training in appropriate use of credit are also needed.     

农机社会化服务采纳、禀赋差异与农村经济相对贫困缓解

进入以缓解相对贫困为重点的后扶贫时代，农村经济相对贫困问题仍不容忽视。农机社会化服务作为小农户与现代农业有机衔接的桥梁，对于推进乡村振兴战略和脱贫攻坚有序衔接具有重要作用。文章讨论的核心议题是农机社会化服务采纳如何缓解农村经济相对贫困，并尝试建立了“农机社会化服务采纳——禀赋差异缩小——农村经济相对贫困缓解”的理论分析框架。为此，文章首先对农机社会化服务采纳影响农村经济相对贫困的作用机制进行了理论分析，然后利用2750份河南省农户问卷调查数据，运用Logit模型，实证检验农机社会化服务采纳对农村经济相对贫困的影响，并通过替代核心自变量和变更样本的方法进行稳健性检验，运用PSM模型和IVProbit模型以及ERM模型进行内生性讨论，最后通过中介效应模型对其作用机制进行验证。结果表明，农机社会化服务采纳对农村经济相对贫困具有显著负向影响，缓解了农村经济相对贫困。考虑内生性后，结论仍具有稳健性。进一步的机制验证发现，农机社会化服务采纳通过缩小劳动力禀赋差异和技术禀赋差异，缓解农村经济相对贫困，劳动力禀赋差异缩小和技术禀赋差异缩小的中介效应占比分别为21.22%和7.36%。可见，应将完善农机社会化服务供需体系纳入农户相对贫困治理机制考虑范畴，引导农户从传统家庭化生产转向现代社会化生产，扩大农机社会化服务采纳范围；同时完善就业服务等相关配套体系以吸纳释放的弱劳动力，促进农户收入增长，缓解农村经济相对贫困。     

Soil and water conservation investments and rural development in China

This study uses a unique set of annual provincial data on soil and water conservation (SWC) investments during the period 1989–2005 to estimate the impact of such investments on the extent and severity of erosion, the growth rate of agricultural gross domestic product (GDP) and rural poverty reduction in China. We find that SWC investments made by local governments have a significant negative impact on the extent of erosion and (in recent years) the severity of erosion, whereas SWC investments made by farm households until recently had a significant negative effect on the severity of erosion. In its turn, the severity of erosion is found to have a significant negative impact on agricultural GDP. Estimation of the impact of the extent of erosion on agricultural GDP provides mixed results. Based on these results, we derive that one RMB invested in SWC by local governments increases agricultural GDP in 2002 with 0.84–1.25 RMB. Finally, we find that agricultural GDP has a significant negative impact on the rural poverty rate. The resulting indirect effect of SWC investment on rural poverty reduction, however, is small compared to other types of public investment. We conclude that (local) government investments in SWC do not only serve environmental goals, but also make a non-negligible contribution to agricultural growth and rural poverty reduction.     

Small Enterprise Growth and the Rural Investment Climate: Evidence from Tanzania*

Abstract: This paper analyzes characteristics of nonfarm enterprises, their employment growth patterns, and constraints in doing business in rural Tanzania. Using unique survey data, we describe a low‐return sector struggling to compete in a challenging business environment. However, about one‐third of rural enterprises are growing fast. Most enterprises engage in agricultural trade. Due to a rapidly growing agricultural sector in recent years, limiting demand‐side constraints, rural enterprise constraints in Tanzania mainly operate from the supply‐side, suggesting that in particular access to finance, road infrastructure and rural cell phone communication is associated with employment growth. A major finding is that subjective and objective measurements of business constraints are broadly comparable. We discuss a number of factors that would help to unleash the full potential of private sector‐led growth in rural areas. Marginal improvements of the rural investment climate matter for growth.     

Rural Nonfarm Employment and Incomes in Brazil: Patterns and Evolution

In decades past, a large contingent of workers left farms and small towns to move to the large cities of Brazil. But in the 1990s, not only has this flow subsided, but one even observes an “urbanization” of rural areas via a large increase in nonfarm activities in rural areas during the 1980s and 1990s, especially in the Center-West and Southeast regions of Brazil. Exclusively agricultural rural households have lower incomes than “multiactive households” (those with activities in both the farm and nonfarm sectors) and than nonfarm rural households. One even notes a significant reduction in the number of purely farm households over 1992–97 in all regions of the country.     

TBT and SPS impacts on Korean exports to China: empirical analysis using the PPML method

Since diplomatic relations were established between China and Korea, the two countries have expanded their relationships, especially in trading commodities and services. However, in recent years, as tariff levels have fallen, China has sought to implement other protectionist mechanisms. The use of non‐tariff measures has added another dimension to international trade activities that need to be better understood. The paper analyses the impacts that two forms of non‐tariff measures, technical barriers to trade (TBT) and sanitary and phytosanitary measures, have on Korean exports to China. To measure the impacts, we use an adapted version of the gravity model and the Poisson pseudo‐maximum likelihood method. The results show that Chinese sanitary and phytosanitary measures, estimated using both the coverage ratio and the frequency index, have positive correlations with Korean agricultural exports; however, Chinese TBT measures, when estimated by the coverage ratio, were found to depress Korean manufacturing exports and exports as a whole. However, using the frequency index, Chinese TBT measures were found to have a statistically insignificant negative impact on Korean exports to China.     

Gender and Competition between Economic or Non‐economic Labor and Schooling: Evidence from EPAM Mali

Abstract: We use the Understanding Children's Work (UCW) definition of child labor and data from the Mali Permanent Household Survey to highlight the gender difference in the competition between economic or non‐economic labor and schooling. A quadri‐variate Probit estimation allows to account for the interdependency between school and various kinds of labor: household chores (HHC), market‐oriented (MO) activities and non‐market‐oriented (NMO) activities. Empirical results provide interesting findings, including differential gender socialization according to the gender of the offspring, gender bias in repartition of tasks and time, and competition between labor activities and schooling.     

从业经历与农业经营方式选择:生产环节外包的视角

从业经历丰富的回流农村劳动力是乡村振兴的重要依靠力量，对促进农业经营方式转型，加快农业服务市场发育有重要作用。文章讨论的核心议题是不同从业经历是如何影响农业经营方式选择的，并尝试建立了"从业经历—个人能力—农业经营方式选择"的理论分析框架。为此，本文首先在一个简单理论架构下，对从业经历影响农业生产环节外包的作用机制进行归纳分析，之后分别利用probit模型和OLS模型，实证分析了务工、务农、经商经历对农户农业生产环节外包选择的影响，并运用倾向匹配得分模型（PSM）进行了稳健性检验，以期为我国农业经营方式转型提供参考。结果显示：务农经历固化了传统农业经营方式，不利于农户农业生产环节外包；务工经历有利于农户社会资本和经济资本的利用提高，促进了农户农业生产环节外包；经商经历对农户农业生产环节外包选择的影响未通过显著性检验；农地细碎化抑制了农户农业生产环节外包；采用PSM最近邻匹配进行检验，结果仍然稳健。因此，中国农业经营方式转型要考虑农户从业经历的多样性，鼓励部分有志于农业农村的农村劳动力回流，使农村劳动力在外出务工期间所获得的资本和能力在乡村更好地发挥作用，为乡村振兴提供人才支持；同时，应加快农地流转，降低农地细碎化程度，为农业社会化服务发展提供基础条件。