This file is part of IDEAS, which uses RePEc data


[ Papers | Articles | Software | Books | Chapters | Authors | Institutions | JEL Classification | NEP reports | Search | New papers by email | Author registration | Rankings | Volunteers | FAQ | Blog | Help! ]

One size fits all? Female Headed Households, Income Risk, and Access to Resources

Author info | Abstract | Publisher info | Download info | Related research | Statistics
Author Info
Seebens, Holger
Abstract

Studies dealing with productivity in female (FHH) and male headed households (MHH) find that FHH appear to be either less, equally, or more productive compared to MHH. Lower productivity of FHH is often explained by insecure access to land, while the findings of higher productivity largely remain unexplained. This paper is an attempt to reconcile these contrasting findings by constructing a model that accounts for productivity effects arising from secure land rights and the risk of falling short of income. Both affect productivity, but they do so in opposite directions. While tenure insecurity tends to decrease labor effort, income risks increase it as subsistence farmers want to avoid falling (deeper) into poverty. Depending on which of these risks prevails in the perception of farmers, they become either more or less productive than a benchmark farmer who faces none of these constraints. The model is tested using data from Kenya where FHH are categorized by different land tenure security schemes. The results from a stochastic cost frontier model establish that FHH facing tenure insecurity are less productive compared to MHH. However, this result only obtains in case households do not face income risks.

Download Info
To download:

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. Information about this may be contained in the File-Format links below. 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.

File URL: http://purl.umn.edu/43609
File Format: application/pdf
File Function:
Download Restriction: no

Publisher Info
Paper provided by European Association of Agricultural Economists in its series 2008 International Congress, August 26-29, 2008, Ghent, Belgium with number 43609.

Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML (with abstract), plain text (with abstract), BibTeX, RIS (EndNote, RefMan, ProCite), ReDIF
Length:
Date of creation: 2008
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:ags:eaae08:43609

Contact details of provider:
Email:
Web page: http://www.eaae.org
More information through EDIRC

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (AgEcon Search).

Related research
Keywords: Female headed households; tenure insecurity; income risk; Consumer/Household Economics;

Other versions of this item:

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports: References listed on IDEAS
Please 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.:
  1. Jacoby, H.G., 1990. "Shadow Wages And Peasant Family Labor Supply; An Econometric Application To The Peruvian Sierra," Papers 73, World Bank - Living Standards Measurement.
    Other versions:
  2. Ingrid Yngstrom, 2002. "Women, Wives and Land Rights in Africa: Situating Gender Beyond the Household in the Debate Over Land Policy and Changing Tenure Systems," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 30(1), pages 21-40. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Halvorsen, Robert & Palmquist, Raymond, 1980. "The Interpretation of Dummy Variables in Semilogarithmic Equations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(3), pages 474-75, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. M. Menon & F. Perali & F. Rosati, 2005. "The Shadow Wage of Child Labour: An Application to Nepal," UCW Working Paper 11, Understanding Children's Work (UCW Project). [Downloadable!]
  5. Camerer, Colin & Babcock, Linda & Loewenstein, George & Thaler, Richard, 1996. "Labor Supply of New York City Cab Drivers: One Day At A time," Working Papers 960, California Institute of Technology, Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. Jorgenson, Dale W., 1986. "Econometric methods for modeling producer behavior," Handbook of Econometrics, in: Z. Griliches† & M. D. Intriligator (ed.), Handbook of Econometrics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 31, pages 1841-1915 Elsevier. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Besley, Timothy, 1995. "Property Rights and Investment Incentives: Theory and Evidence from Ghana," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 103(5), pages 903-37, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Robert E. Evenson & Germano Mwabu, 1998. "The Effects of Agricultural Extension on Farm Yields in Kenya," Working Papers 798, Economic Growth Center, Yale University. [Downloadable!]
  9. Lapar, Ma. Lucila A. & Pandey, Sushil, 1999. "Adoption of soil conservation: the case of the Philippine uplands," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 21(3), pages 241-256, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Henry S. Farber, 2005. "Is Tomorrow Another Day? The Labor Supply of New York City Cabdrivers," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(1), pages 46-82, February.
  11. Doss, Cheryl R., 2001. "Designing Agricultural Technology for African Women Farmers: Lessons from 25 Years of Experience," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(12), pages 2075-2092, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Francis D. K. Anim, 1999. "A Note on the Adoption of Soil Conservation Measures in the Northern Province of South Africa," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 50(2), pages 336-345. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Fuss, Melvyn & McFadden, Daniel & Mundlak, Yair, 1978. "A Survey of Functional Forms in the Economic Analysis of Production," Histoy of Economic Thought Chapters, in: Fuss, Melvyn & McFadden, Daniel (ed.), Production Economics: A Dual Approach to Theory and Applications, volume 1, chapter 4 McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought. [Downloadable!]
  14. Doss, Cheryl R. & Morris, Michael L., 2001. "How does gender affect the adoption of agricultural innovations?: The case of improved maize technology in Ghana," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 25(1), pages 27-39, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  15. Handa, Sudhanshu, 1996. "The Determinants of Female Headship in Jamaica: Results from a Structural Model," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 44(4), pages 793-815, July.
  16. Z, Griliches ; Jacques Mairesse, . "Production Functions : The Search for Identification," Working Papers 97-30, Centre de Recherche en Economie et Statistique. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  17. Templeton, Scott R. & Scherr, Sara J., 1997. "Population pressure and the microeconomy of land management in hills and mountains of developing countries:," EPTD discussion papers 26, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). [Downloadable!]
  18. Evenson, R.E. & Mwabu, G., 1998. "The Effects of Agricultural Extension on Farm Yields in Kenya," Papers 798, Yale - Economic Growth Center.
  19. Baidu-Forson, J., 1999. "Factors influencing adoption of land-enhancing technology in the Sahel: lessons from a case study in Niger," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 20(3), pages 231-239, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  20. Barbier, Bruno, 1998. "Induced innovation and land degradation: Results from a bioeconomic model of a village in West Africa," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 19(1-2), pages 15-25, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  21. Feder, Gershon & Just, Richard E & Zilberman, David, 1985. "Adoption of Agricultural Innovations in Developing Countries: A Survey," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 33(2), pages 255-98, January.
  22. Sandmo, Agnar, 1971. "On the Theory of the Competitive Firm under Price Uncertainty," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 61(1), pages 65-73, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  23. Dalton, Timothy J. & Masters, William A. & Foster, Kenneth A., 1997. "Production costs and input substitution in Zimbabwe's smallholder agriculture," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 17(2-3), pages 201-209, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Full references

Statistics
Access and download statistics

Did you know? A tutorial is available.

This page was last updated on 2009-11-26.

This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Department of Economics, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Connecticut using RePEc data on a server sponsored by the Society for Economic Dynamics.