This paper studies the demand for hired casual labour under production risk for a sample of Indian cultivators. A simple static household model under production risk is constructed to yield the demand for hired labour function. A detailed discussion of the various technological and non-technological regressors is then presented. Empirical results reveal that the risk variables do not have a significant influence on hiring-in behaviour. This result is important since the theoretical literature shows that a marginal increase in risk would lead to a decline in the demand for labour. Further, caste factors do not appear to influence hiring-in, contrary to evidence for eastern India. Land-augmenting technological factors appear to be the most important in explaining rightward shifts in the demand curve over time.
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