Agricultural extension system reform and agent time allocation in China
Abstract
We conducted a nationally representative survey to measure the impact of China's institutional reforms in public agricultural extension on the time allocation of its one million agricultural extension agents. We found that Chinese agents spent much less time than their titles would suggest on providing agricultural extension services, and that agents whose base salaries were funded fully or partially by commercial activities spent substantially less time serving farmers. The institutional incentives associated with the source of funding have a much larger effect on agent time allocation than do the levels of funding. We conclude that the recent government policy to separate commercial activities from extension services is a step in the right direction and should be expanded. The results also suggest that, at least for agricultural extension, the goal of many national governments and international donors to develop locally financing institutions to sustain development projects may be misguided.Download Info
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.
Bibliographic Info
Article provided by Elsevier in its journal China Economic Review.
Volume (Year): 20 (2009)
Issue (Month): 2 (June)
Pages: 303-315
Contact details of provider:
Web page: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/chieco
Related research
Keywords: Agriculture Extension Reform Agent China;References
References listed on IDEASPlease report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
- Zhang, Xiaobo, 2006.
"Fiscal decentralization and political centralization in China: Implications for growth and inequality,"
Journal of Comparative Economics,
Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 713-726, December.
- Zhang, Xiaobo, 2006. "Fiscal Decentralization and Political Centralization in China: Implications for Growth and Inequality," Working Papers RP2006/93, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
- Jock R. Anderson, 2004. "Agricultural Extension: Good Intentions and Hard Realities," World Bank Research Observer, World Bank Group, vol. 19(1), pages 41-60.
- Michael Kremer & Edward Miguel, 2004.
"The Illusion of Sustainability,"
NBER Working Papers
10324, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
- Michael Kremer & Edward Miguel, 2007. "The Illusion of Sustainability," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 122(3), pages 1007-1065, 08.
- Kremer, Michael Robert & Miguel, Edward A., 2004. "The Illusion of Sustainability," Center for International and Development Economics Research, Working Paper Series qt94p8w1d7, Center for International and Development Economics Research, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley.
- Michael Kremer & Edward Miguel, 2004. "The Illusion of Sustainability," Working Papers 35, Center for Global Development.
- Jonathan Morduch, 1999. "The Microfinance Promise," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 37(4), pages 1569-1614, December.
Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Shijun Ding & Laura Meriluoto & W. Robert Reed & Dayun Tao & Haitao Wu, 2011.
"The Impact of Agricultural Technology Adaption on Income Inequality in Rural China,"
Working Papers in Economics
11/04, University of Canterbury, Department of Economics and Finance.
- Shijun Ding & Laura Meriluoto & W. Robert Reed & Daoyun Tao & Haitao Wu, 2010. "The Impact of Agricultural Technology Adoption of Income Inequality in Rural China," Working Papers in Economics 10/41, University of Canterbury, Department of Economics and Finance.
- Ding, Shijun & Meriluoto, Laura & Reed, W. Robert & Tao, Dayun & Wu, Haitao, 2011. "The impact of agricultural technology adoption on income inequality in rural China: Evidence from southern Yunnan Province," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 344-356, September.
- Weber, Daniela, 2011. "Agri-environmental attitudes of Chinese farmers – The impact of social and cognitive determinants," 85th Annual Conference, April 18-20, 2011, Warwick University, Coventry, UK 108964, Agricultural Economics Society.
- Wang, Xiaobing & Hockmann, Heinrich, 2012. "Technical Efficiency Under Producer’S Individual Technology: A Metafrontier Analysis," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 126755, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
- Hu, Ruifa & Cai, Yaqing & Chen, Kevin Z. & Huang, Jikun, 2012.
"Effects of inclusive public agricultural extension service: Results from a policy reform experiment in western China,"
China Economic Review,
Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 962-974.
- Hu, Ruifa & Cai, Yaqing & Chen, Kevin Z. & Cui, Yongwei & Huang, Jikun, 2010. "Effects of inclusive public agricultural extension service: Results from a policy reform experiment in Western China," IFPRI discussion papers 1037, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
Lists
This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.Statistics
Access and download statisticsCorrections
When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:chieco:v:20:y:2009:i:2:p:303-315For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Wendy Shamier).
If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.
If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.
If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.
If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

