离土与离乡:西部山区农户的非农兼业研究

在可持续生计分析框架下(SLF),本文发展了一个农户模型,阐释了在多重不完全市场条件下,农户的资本禀赋包括人力资本的分布特征和金融可及性等,如何决定农户参与两类不同的非农兼业活动。基于陕西周至山区的农户调查数据,文章的实证结果表明:高人力资本水平是外地打工兼业的关键因素,而本地非农经营兼业还要求农户具备较高的物质资本和社会关系资本等。     

市场潜能、人口密度与非农劳动生产率——来自中国地级面板数据的证据

本文基于样本期为1999—2004年的地级面板数据并运用动态面板数据的计量方法，对中国地级区域市场潜能、人口密度等经济地理因素与其非农业劳动生产率之间的关系进行了实证研究。结果表明，地级区域的市场潜能、人口密度等经济地理因素对其非农劳动生产率都存在显著为正的影响。而且，无论是从绝对弹性还是标准化弹性来看，地级区域市场潜能对其非农劳动生产率的影响都更大。     

农业产业集群与农村劳动力就业的机理研究

解决“三农”问题关键是如何促进农村剩余劳动力就业,提高农民收入。然而受到2008年美国的金融危机的影响。农村劳动力就业更加困难。目前解决农村劳动力就业问题行之有效的方式是发展农业产业集群。文章深入分析农业产业集群对农村劳动力就业的作用机理,从农业产业集群的角度,提出了解决农村劳动力就业的政策建议。     

Seasonal Migration and Microcredit During Agricultural Lean Seasons: Evidence from Northwest Bangladesh

This paper investigates the interlinkage between microcredit and temporary seasonal migration, an issue which has been given little attention in the standard rural–urban migration literature. Seasonal migration due to agricultural downturns is a common phenomenon in developing countries. Using primary data from a cross‐sectional household survey of the northwest part of Bangladesh, this paper quantifies the factors that influence such migration decisions. Our results suggest that people with prior access to microcredit are more likely to migrate during an agricultural lean season. Furthermore, we find evidence of a negative selection effect between microcredit and seasonal migration, conditional on an individual's village of residence and observed characteristics. Our results have numerous potential policy implications, including the design of typical microcredit schemes for developing countries.     

农民非农就业与对农业生产技术的采用——来自扬州的实证

农民进入非农产业就业必然会对农业生产产生影响.农业生产技术的变迁能够有效推动农业现代化进程.文章将以上两者同时加以考察,利用对农户调查的截面数据,分析了农村家庭中劳动力进入非农产业就业对家庭采用农业生产技术产生的影响,并通过实证研究的结论进一步说明了农民非农就业的意义.     

Proximity,information, and loan pricing in internal capital markets: Evidence from China

We examine the effect of geographic proximity on loan pricing in internal capital markets by focusing on the role of information. Using a hand-collected dataset on entrusted loans within business groups in China, we find that loan prices are positively associated with the distance between borrowers and lenders, which suggests that a reduction in distance facilitates the monitoring of borrowers and gathering of soft information by lenders. Results remain unchanged after controlling for potential endogeneity. Our findings are further pronounced (1) for lenders with headquarters that are time constrained; (2) during the early years of our sample period, when the Internet and transportation infrastructure were less developed; and (3) for borrowers for whom information uncertainty is likely to be substantial and soft information is likely to be valuable, such as young borrowers and borrowers in different industries to lenders. This paper sheds new light on the role of geographic proximity in intra-group loans within business groups.     

Farm households' participation in rural non-farm employment in post-war Rwanda: Drivers and policy implications

Despite the post-war government's unprecedented efforts to stimulate growth of the rural non-farm (RNF) sector in Rwanda, evidence suggests that participation in this sector remains low compared with other developing and transition economies. This study investigates the micro and meso-level factors defining farm household's capacity and incentives to participate in RNF employment in the post-war Rwanda. Based on the household's time allocation theory, this study employs household survey data collected in Gisagara District in a double-hurdle regression. The results reveal that female-headedness, labour availability, education, social networks, access to finance and rural towns increase the probability of participating in RNF activities, whereas for participating households, the time allocated to RNF activities tends to decrease with age, land productivity, distance to market and dispersed settlements. The article concludes with key implications for rural development policies such as basic education and umudugudu settlements.     

Human Capital Externalities and Proximity: Evidence from Repeated Cross-Sectional Data

Summary  Does schooling generate social returns in excess of the private returns captured by the individual who makes the human capital investment? As a strategy to detect human capital externalities I use Dutch survey data to estimate the impact of the average human capital stock in a region on individual wages, considering regional human capital as a local public good. Indeed, the regional fraction of high-skilled workers or the region’s average educational attainment appears with a positive and statistically significant coefficient in an augmented Mincer specification. However, the impact on individual wages completely vanishes when the firm’s human capital stock is included as an additional control. This may suggest that human capital externalities predominate within firms, though alternative explanations, in particular selection of high-skilled workers in high-productive companies and imperfect substitutability across skill groups, cannot be ruled out. I would like to thank two referees, Nicole Bosch, Theo van de Klundert, Pierre Koning, Rob Luginbuhl, Mauro Mastrogiacomo, Gabriela Schütz, Wouter Vermeulen, Dinand Webbink and seminar participants at the Enterprise and Industry Directorate-General of the European Commission, the NAKE Research Day 2007, the 64th Congress of the International Institute of Public Finance, and the CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis for helpful comments, and Joke Goes, Jelte Haagsma and Judith Hoeben for their help with the data. Views expressed are my own, and do not necessarily reflect official positions of the European Commission or the CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.