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Rural Nonfarm Employment and Incomes in the Eastern Himalayas

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  • Rahut, Dil Bahadur
  • Micevska, Maja B.

Abstract

Nonfarm activities generate on average about 60 percent of rural households? incomes in the eastern Himalayan region of India. This paper analyzes the determinants of participation in nonfarm activities and of nonfarm incomes across rural households. We present and explore an analytical framework that yields different activity choices as optimal solutions to a simple utility maximization problem. A unique data set collected in the eastern Himalayas allows us to closely examine the implications of the analytical framework. We conduct an empirical inquiry that reveals that education plays a major role in accessing more remunerative nonfarm employment. Other household assets and characteristics such as land, social status, geographical location, and credit access also play a role.

Suggested Citation

  • Rahut, Dil Bahadur & Micevska, Maja B., 2007. "Rural Nonfarm Employment and Incomes in the Eastern Himalayas," Proceedings of the German Development Economics Conference, Göttingen 2007 22, Verein für Socialpolitik, Research Committee Development Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:gdec07:6545
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    Cited by:

    1. Rahut, Dil Bahadur & Velásquez, Castellanos Iván & Sahoo, Pravakar, 2010. "Commercialization of agriculture in the Himalayas," IDE Discussion Papers 265, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    2. Carsten Lohmann & Ingo Liefner, 2014. "Spatial Patterns of Private Sector and Public Sector Non-Agricultural Jobs in Rural Northeast Thailand," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(4), pages 710-726, April.
    3. Rahaman, Sk. Mahidur & Halder, Surajit & Pal, Subhadip & Ghosh, Abhishek, "undated". "Role of rural off-farm employment in earning income and livelihood in the coastal region of West Bengal, India," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 212697, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    4. Ha Hong Nguyen, 2018. "The Analysis of Factors Affecting Multi-dimensional Poverty of the Khmer Ethnic in Tra Vinh Province, Vietnam," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 8(4), pages 158-162.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Nonfarm employment; Rural households; Incomes; Education; India;
    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
    • O18 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes

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