IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecosys/v43y2019i1p99-110.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Agricultural productivity, shadow wages and off-farm labor decisions in Nicaragua

Author

Listed:
  • Almeida, Alexandre N.
  • Bravo-Ureta, Boris E.

Abstract

The objective of this study is to analyze the decision to work off-farm by male and female farmers in Nicaragua using a three-year unbalanced panel dataset. Shadow income and shadow wages are also estimated. Moreover, to mitigate biases from unobserved individual and farm time-invariant characteristics as well as from sample selection, we apply a semiparametric approach for panel data. Our main findings suggest that shadow wages play a major role in off-farm labor decisions for both males and females. This implies that less labor is allocated to off-farm activities as the opportunity cost for agricultural work goes up. In addition, as the on-farm marginal productivity of households (i.e., shadow income) rises, both males and females reduce the hours they allocate to off-farm activities.

Suggested Citation

  • Almeida, Alexandre N. & Bravo-Ureta, Boris E., 2019. "Agricultural productivity, shadow wages and off-farm labor decisions in Nicaragua," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 99-110.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecosys:v:43:y:2019:i:1:p:99-110
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecosys.2018.09.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0939362518305673
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecosys.2018.09.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Huffman, Wallace E & Lange, Mark D, 1989. "Off-Farm Work Decisions of Husbands and Wives: Joint Decision Making," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 71(3), pages 471-480, August.
    2. Emmanuel Skoufias, 1994. "Using Shadow Wages to Estimate Labor Supply of Agricultural Households," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 76(2), pages 215-227.
    3. Canagarajah, S. & Newman, C. & Bhattamishra, R., 2001. "Non-farm income, gender, and inequality: evidence from rural Ghana and Uganda," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 405-420, August.
    4. Jean-Paul Chavas & Ragan Petrie & Michael Roth, 2005. "Farm Household Production Efficiency: Evidence from The Gambia," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 87(1), pages 160-179.
    5. Bhaumik, Sumon Kumar & Dimova, Ralitza & Nugent, Jeffrey B., 2011. "Off-farm labor supply and labor markets in rapidly changing circumstances: Bulgaria during transition," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 378-389, September.
    6. Christopher B. Barrett & Shane M. Sherlund & Akinwumi A. Adesina, 2008. "Shadow wages, allocative inefficiency, and labor supply in smallholder agriculture," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 38(1), pages 21-34, January.
    7. Dethier, Jean-Jacques & Effenberger, Alexandra, 2012. "Agriculture and development: A brief review of the literature," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 175-205.
    8. Alberto Isgut, 2004. "Non-farm Income and Employment in Rural Honduras: Assessing the Role of Locational Factors," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(3), pages 59-86.
    9. Charlier, Erwin & Melenberg, Bertrand & van Soest, Arthur, 2001. "An analysis of housing expenditure using semiparametric models and panel data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 101(1), pages 71-107, March.
    10. Abdulai, Awudu & Eberlin, Richard, 2001. "Technical efficiency during economic reform in Nicaragua: evidence from farm household survey data," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 113-125, June.
    11. Futoshi Yamauchi, 2008. "Early Childhood Nutrition, Schooling, and Sibling Inequality in a Dynamic Context: Evidence from South Africa," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(3), pages 657-682, April.
    12. Gronau, Reuben, 1977. "Leisure, Home Production, and Work-The Theory of the Allocation of Time Revisited," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 85(6), pages 1099-1123, December.
    13. Benjamin, Dwayne, 1992. "Household Composition, Labor Markets, and Labor Demand: Testing for Separation in Agricultural Household Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 60(2), pages 287-322, March.
    14. Huffman, Wallace E, 1980. "Farm and Off-Farm Work Decisions: The Role of Human Capital," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 62(1), pages 14-23, February.
    15. Kumar, Anjani & Mishra, Ashok K. & Saroj, Sunil & Joshi, P.K., 2017. "Institutional versus non-institutional credit to agricultural households in India: Evidence on impact from a national farmers’ survey," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 420-432.
    16. Avner Ahituv & Ayal Kimhi, 2006. "Simultaneous estimation of work choices and the level of farm activity using panel data," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 33(1), pages 49-71, March.
    17. Benjamin Davis & Paul Winters & Thomas Reardon & Kostas Stamoulis, 2009. "Rural nonfarm employment and farming: household‐level linkages," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 40(2), pages 119-123, March.
    18. Aziz Atamanov & Marrit Van den Berg, 2012. "Participation and returns in rural nonfarm activities: evidence from the Kyrgyz Republic," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 43(4), pages 459-471, July.
    19. Deininger, Klaus & Zegarra, Eduardo & Lavadenz, Isabel, 2003. "Determinants and Impacts of Rural Land Market Activity: Evidence from Nicaragua," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(8), pages 1385-1404, August.
    20. Ekaterini Kyriazidou, 1997. "Estimation of a Panel Data Sample Selection Model," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(6), pages 1335-1364, November.
    21. Alberto Zezza & Paul Winters & Benjamin Davis & Gero Carletto & Katia Covarrubias & Esteban Quinones & Kostas Stamoulis & Takis Karfakis & Luca Tasciotti & Stefania DiGiuseppe & Genny Bonomi, 2007. "Rural Household Access to Assets and Agrarian Institutions; A Cross Country Comparison," Working Papers 07-17, Agricultural and Development Economics Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO - ESA).
    22. Barrett, C. B. & Reardon, T. & Webb, P., 2001. "Nonfarm income diversification and household livelihood strategies in rural Africa: concepts, dynamics, and policy implications," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 315-331, August.
    23. Gbemisola Oseni & Paul Winters, 2009. "Rural nonfarm activities and agricultural crop production in Nigeria," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 40(2), pages 189-201, March.
    24. Henderson,Daniel J. & Parmeter,Christopher F., 2015. "Applied Nonparametric Econometrics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521279680.
    25. Barry K. Goodwin & Matthew T. Holt, 2002. "Parametric and Semiparametric Modeling of the Off-Farm Labor Supply of Agrarian Households in Transition Bulgaria," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 84(1), pages 184-209.
    26. World Bank, 2016. "World Development Indicators 2016," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 23969, December.
    27. McCarthy, Nancy & Sun, Yan, 2009. "Participation by men and women in off-farm activities: An empirical analysis in rural northern Ghana," IFPRI discussion papers 852, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    28. Hanan G. Jacoby, 1993. "Shadow Wages and Peasant Family Labour Supply: An Econometric Application to the Peruvian Sierra," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 60(4), pages 903-921.
    29. Yatchew,Adonis, 2003. "Semiparametric Regression for the Applied Econometrician," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521812832, January.
    30. Newman, Constance & Canagarajah, Sudharshan, 2000. "Gender, poverty, and nonfarm employment in Ghana and Uganda," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2367, The World Bank.
    31. Lanjouw, Peter, 2001. "Nonfarm Employment and Poverty in Rural El Salvador," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 529-547, March.
    32. Reardon, Thomas & Berdegue, Julio & Escobar, German, 2001. "Rural Nonfarm Employment and Incomes in Latin America: Overview and Policy Implications," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 395-409, March.
    33. Nikolaj Malchow-Møller & Michael Svarer, 2005. "Wage - labour activities by agricultural households in Nicaragua," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(7), pages 1221-1246.
    34. Jan Erik Askildsen & Badi H. Baltagi & Tor Helge Holmås, 2003. "Wage policy in the health care sector: a panel data analysis of nurses' labour supply," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(9), pages 705-719, September.
    35. Boris E. Bravo‐Ureta & Alexandre Nunes Almeida & Daniel Solís & Aarón Inestroza, 2011. "The Economic Impact of Marena’s Investments on Sustainable Agricultural Systems in Honduras," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(2), pages 429-448, June.
    36. Haggblade, Steven & Hazell, Peter B. R. & Reardon, Thomas Anthony (ed.), 2007. "Transforming the rural nonfarm economy: Opportunities and threats in the developing world," IFPRI books, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), number 978-0-8018-8664-5.
    37. Matshe, Innocent & Young, Trevor, 2004. "Off-farm labour allocation decisions in small-scale rural households in Zimbabwe," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 30(3), pages 175-186, May.
    38. Jolliffe, Dean, 2004. "The impact of education in rural Ghana: examining household labor allocation and returns on and off the farm," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 287-314, February.
    39. Mark R. Rosenzweig, 1980. "Neoclassical Theory and the Optimizing Peasant: An Econometric Analysis of Market Family Labor Supply in a Developing Country," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 94(1), pages 31-55.
    40. Mary K. Mathenge & David L. Tschirley, 2015. "Off-farm labor market decisions and agricultural shocks among rural households in Kenya," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 46(5), pages 603-616, September.
    41. Corral, Leonardo & Reardon, Thomas, 2001. "Rural Nonfarm Incomes in Nicaragua," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 427-442, March.
    42. Lanjouw, Jean O. & Lanjouw, Peter, 2001. "The rural non-farm sector: issues and evidence from developing countries," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 26(1), pages 1-23, October.
    43. Abdulai, Awudu & Regmi, Punya Prasad, 2000. "Estimating labor supply of farm households under nonseparability: empirical evidence from Nepal," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 22(3), pages 309-320, April.
    44. Awudu Abdulai & Christopher L. Delgado, 1999. "Determinants of Nonfarm Earnings of Farm-Based Husbands and Wives in Northern Ghana," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 81(1), pages 117-130.
    45. George E. Battese, 1997. "A Note On The Estimation Of Cobb‐Douglas Production Functions When Some Explanatory Variables Have Zero Values," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1‐3), pages 250-252, January.
    46. Deolalikar, Anil B & Vijverberg, Wim P M, 1987. "A Test of Heterogeneity of Family and Hired Labour in Asian Agriculture," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 49(3), pages 291-305, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nunes Almeida, Alexandre & Bravo-Ureta, Boris E., 2022. "Farm size and productivity in Nicaragua: Parametric and nonparametric analyses for panel data," Economia Agraria y Recursos Naturales, Spanish Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 22(01), June.
    2. Baležentis, Tomas & Li, Tianxiang & Chen, Xueli, 2021. "Has agricultural labor restructuring improved agricultural labor productivity in China? A decomposition approach," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alex Almeida & Boris Bravo-Ureta, 2011. "Agricultural Productivity And Off-Farm Labor Decisions By Heads And Spouses In Nicaragua: A Semiparametric Analysis Using Panel Data," ERSA conference papers ersa11p508, European Regional Science Association.
    2. Bagamba, Fredrick & Burger, Kees & Kuyvenhoven, Arie, 2007. "Determinants of smallholder farmer labour allocation decisions in Uganda," 106th Seminar, October 25-27, 2007, Montpellier, France 7920, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    3. Unai Pascual & Edward Barbier, 2005. "On- and off-farm labor decisions by slash-and-burn farmers in Yucatan (Mexico)," Environmental Economy and Policy Research Working Papers 06.2005, University of Cambridge, Department of Land Economics, revised 2005.
    4. Nguyen, Huy, 2014. "The effect of land fragmentation on labor allocation and the economic diversity of farm households: The case of Vietnam," MPRA Paper 57521, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Bhaumik, Sumon K. & Dimova, Ralitza & Nugent, Jeffrey B., 2006. "Pulls, Pushes and Entitlement Failures in Labor Markets: Does the State of Development Matter?," IZA Discussion Papers 2258, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Marwan Benali & Bernhard Brümmer & Victor Afari‐Sefa, 2018. "Smallholder participation in vegetable exports and age‐disaggregated labor allocation in Northern Tanzania," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 49(5), pages 549-562, September.
    7. Rakhshanda, Kousar & Awudu, Abdulai, 2013. "Impacts of rural non-farm employment on household welfare in Pakistan," 2013 Second Congress, June 6-7, 2013, Parma, Italy 149890, Italian Association of Agricultural and Applied Economics (AIEAA).
    8. Rakhe Balachandran & Jerrod Penn & Maria Bampasidou, 2023. "Understanding the variation in estimates of off‐farm labour supply elasticities: A meta‐analysis," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(1), pages 116-134, February.
    9. Benjamin Tetteh Anang, 2017. "Effect of non-farm work on agricultural productivity: Empirical evidence from northern Ghana," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-38, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    10. Benjamin Tetteh Anang, 2017. "Effect of non-farm work on agricultural productivity: Empirical evidence from northern Ghana," WIDER Working Paper Series 038, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    11. Jan Fałkowski & Maciej Jakubowski & Paweł Strawiński, 2014. "Returns from income strategies in rural Poland," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 22(1), pages 139-178, January.
    12. Corral, Paul & Radchenko, Natalia, 2017. "What’s So Spatial about Diversification in Nigeria?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 231-253.
    13. Peter Brummund & Joshua D. Merfeld, 2022. "Should farmers farm more? Comparing marginal products within Malawian households," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 53(2), pages 289-306, March.
    14. Wang, Xiaobing, 2007. "Labor market behavior of Chinese rural households during transition," Studies on the Agricultural and Food Sector in Transition Economies, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), volume 42, number 92321.
    15. Tocco, Barbara & Davidova, Sophia & Bailey, Alastair Creation-Date: 2012-02, "undated". "Key Issues in Agricultural Labour Markets: A Review of Major Studies and Project Reports on Agriculture and Rural Labour Markets," Factor Markets Working Papers 126, Centre for European Policy Studies.
    16. Bezu, Sosina & Barrett, Christopher B., 2010. "Activity Choice in Rural Non-farm Employment (RNFE): Survival versus accumulative strategy," MPRA Paper 55034, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Wang, Xiaobing & Herzfeld, Thomas & Glauben, Thomas, 2007. "Labor allocation in transition: Evidence from Chinese rural households," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 287-308.
    18. Drall, Anviksha & Mandal, Sabuj Kumar, 2021. "Investigating the existence of entry barriers in rural non-farm sector (RNFS) employment in India: A theoretical modelling and an empirical analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    19. Shaikh M.S.U. Eskander & Edward B. Barbier & Benjamin Gilbert, 2018. "Fishing and Nonfishing Income Decisions: The Role of Human Capital and Family Structure," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 94(1), pages 114-136.
    20. Bezu, Sosina & Barrett, Christopher B. & Holden, Stein T., 2012. "Does the Nonfarm Economy Offer Pathways for Upward Mobility? Evidence from a Panel Data Study in Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(8), pages 1634-1646.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Shadow wages; Farm productivity; Semiparametric models; Labor supply; Nicaragua;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q12 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets
    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecosys:v:43:y:2019:i:1:p:99-110. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    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 CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc 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 RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/osteide.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.