IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/fcnddp/60401.html

Living Life: overlooked aspects of urban employment

Author

Listed:
  • Garrett, James L.

Abstract

With urban dwellers purchasing 80 percent or more of their food, understanding urban employment is critical to designing policies and programs to address urban hunger and poverty. Reviewing the literature, but also using data from household surveys conducted by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and others in five countries of Latin America, Asia, and Africa, this paper profiles urban employment in developing-country cities. It highlights some often-overlooked aspects of urban conditions, most especially the importance of agriculture, the continuing importance of the formal sector, and seasonality of income, even among those not connected to agriculture. It also examines the connections between poverty and employment; looks at where people work and what they do; and highlights the importance of personal networks, the informal sector, and the concerns of women. Finally, it notes some dynamic forces shaping the future of urban employment and suggests some guidelines for policies and programs.

Suggested Citation

  • Garrett, James L., 2004. "Living Life: overlooked aspects of urban employment," FCND Discussion Papers 60401, CGIAR, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:fcnddp:60401
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.60401
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/60401/files/fcndp171.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.60401?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Funkhouser, Edward, 1996. "The urban informal sector in Central America: Household survey evidence," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 24(11), pages 1737-1751, November.
    2. Philip Amis & Carole Rakodi, 1994. "Urban poverty: Issues for research and policy," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 6(5), pages 627-634, September.
    3. Rosenzweig, Mark R., 1988. "Labor markets in low-income countries," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Hollis Chenery & T.N. Srinivasan (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 15, pages 713-762, Elsevier.
    4. Menno Pradhan & Arthur Van Soest, 1997. "Household Labor Supply In Urban Areas Of Bolivia," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 79(2), pages 300-310, May.
    5. Portes, Alejandro & Blitzer, Silvia & Curtis, John, 1986. "The urban informal sector in Uruguay: Its internal structure, characteristics, and effects," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 14(6), pages 727-741, June.
    6. Pius B. Simon, 1998. "Informal Responses to Crises of Urban Employment: An Investigation into the Structure and Relevance of Small-scale Informal Retailing in Kaduna, Nigeria," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(6), pages 547-557, August.
    7. Glick, Peter & Sahn, David E, 1998. "Maternal Labour Supply and Child Nutrition in West Africa," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 60(3), pages 325-355, August.
    8. Yamada, Gustavo, 1996. "Urban Informal Employment and Self-Employment in Developing Countries: Theory and Evidence," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 44(2), pages 289-314, January.
    9. Diagne, Aliou & Zeller, Manfred, 2001. "Access to credit and its impact on welfare in Malawi," Research reports 116, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    10. Geof Wood & Sarah Salway, 2000. "Introduction: securing livelihoods in Dhaka slums," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(5), pages 669-688.
    11. Heather Xiaoquan Zhang, 1999. "Female Migration and Urban Labour Markets in Tianjin," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 30(1), pages 21-41, January.
    12. Ranis, Gustav & Stewart, Frances, 1999. "V-Goods and the Role of the Urban Informal Sector in Development," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 47(2), pages 259-288, January.
    13. Mark M. Pitt & Shahidur R. Khandker, 1998. "The Impact of Group-Based Credit Programs on Poor Households in Bangladesh: Does the Gender of Participants Matter?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(5), pages 958-996, October.
    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. Ruel, Marie T. & Garrett, James L., 2004. "Features of Urban Food and Nutrition Security and Considerations for Successful Urban Programming," eJADE: electronic Journal of Agricultural and Development Economics, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Agricultural and Development Economics Division (ESA), vol. 1(2), pages 1-30.

    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. Garrett, James L., 2004. "Living life: overlooked aspects of urban employment," FCND discussion papers 171, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    2. Ruel, Marie T. & Garrett, James L., 2004. "Features of Urban Food and Nutrition Security and Considerations for Successful Urban Programming," eJADE: electronic Journal of Agricultural and Development Economics, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Agricultural and Development Economics Division (ESA), vol. 1(2), pages 1-30.
    3. Marie T. Ruel & James L. Garrett, 2004. "Features of Urban Food and Nutrition Security and Considerations for Successful Urban Programming," The Electronic Journal of Agricultural and Development Economics, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, vol. 1(2), pages 242-271.
    4. Takao FUKUCHI, 1998. "A Simulation Analysis Of The Urban Informal Sector," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 36(3), pages 225-256, September.
    5. Aysit Tansel, 2001. "Wage Earners, Self Employed and Gender in the Informal Sector in Turkey," Working Papers 0102, Economic Research Forum, revised 01 Nov 2001.
    6. Henley, Andrew & Arabsheibani, G. Reza & Carneiro, Francisco G., 2009. "On Defining and Measuring the Informal Sector: Evidence from Brazil," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 992-1003, May.
    7. Henley, Andrew & Arabsheibani, G. Reza & Carneiro, Francisco G., 2006. "On defining and measuring the informal sector," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3866, The World Bank.
    8. Gindling, T.H. & Terrell, Katherine, 2005. "The effect of minimum wages on actual wages in formal and informal sectors in Costa Rica," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(11), pages 1905-1921, November.
    9. Amendola,Alessandra & Boccia,Marinella & Mele,Gianluca & Sensini,Luca, 2016. "Financial access and household welfare : evidence from Mauritania," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7533, The World Bank.
    10. Falco, Paolo & Maloney, William F. & Rijkers, Bob & Sarrias, Mauricio, 2015. "Heterogeneity in subjective wellbeing: An application to occupational allocation in Africa," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 137-153.
    11. Nordjo, R. & Adjasi, C., 2018. "The Impact of Finance on Welfare of Smallholder Farm Household in Ghana," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277142, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    12. Alwang, Jeffrey Roger & Puhazhendhi, V., 2002. "The Impact Of The International Food Policy Research Institute'S Research Program On Rural Finance Policies For Food Security For The Poor," Impact Assessment Discussion Papers 16582, CGIAR, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    13. Fletschner, Diana, 2009. "Rural Women's Access to Credit: Market Imperfections and Intrahousehold Dynamics," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 618-631, March.
    14. Nidhiya Menon & Yana van der Meulen Rodgers, 2013. "Credit and self-employment," Chapters, in: Deborah M. Figart & Tonia L. Warnecke (ed.), Handbook of Research on Gender and Economic Life, chapter 22, pages 359-377, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    15. Lay, Jann & Wiebelt, Manfred, 2001. "Towards a dual education system - a labour market perspective on poverty reduction in Bolivia," Kiel Working Papers 1073, Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
    16. Funkhouser, Edward, 1998. "Changes in the returns to education in Costa Rica," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(2), pages 289-317.
    17. Michael J. Pisani & José A. Pagán, 2003. "Sectoral Queuing in a Transitional Economy: The Case of Nicaragua in the 1990s," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 17(4), pages 571-597, December.
    18. Gustav Ranis, 2004. "Arthur Lewis' Contribution to Development Thinking and Policy," Working Papers 891, Economic Growth Center, Yale University.
    19. Ioana Marinescu & Margaret Triyana, 2016. "The sources of wage growth in a developing country," IZA Journal of Labor & Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-43, December.
    20. Gustav Ranis, 2003. "Is Dualism Worth Revisiting?," Working Papers 870, Economic Growth Center, Yale University.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    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:ags:fcnddp:60401. 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: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ifprius.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.