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Factor Market Activity And The Inverse Farm Sizeproductivity Relationship In Tanzania

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  • Wineman, Ayala
  • Jayne, Thomas S.

Abstract

Although the inverse farm size-productivity relationship (IR) is sometimes used to motivate arguments in favor of smallholder-led agricultural development, it remains unclear what drives this relationship. It may be attributed to market imperfections that compel small farms to use land more intensively than large farms. Using a three-wave longitudinal household survey from Tanzania, we examine whether the intensity of the IR is related to local factor market activity for land, labor, credit, and animal and machine traction. The IR is evident in Tanzania, although it disappears when family labor is valued at the prevailing local agricultural wage rate. This suggests that labor market imperfections (possibly linked to other market failures) drive the IR. Furthermore, the IR is significantly weakened in the presence of relatively active markets for most factors of production. This suggests that the IR is at least partly driven by imperfections in rural factor markets, underscoring the importance of strategies to improve the functioning of these markets.

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  • Wineman, Ayala & Jayne, Thomas S., 2017. "Factor Market Activity And The Inverse Farm Sizeproductivity Relationship In Tanzania," Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security Policy Research Papers 265405, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security (FSP).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:miffrp:265405
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.265405
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Ayala Wineman & C. Leigh Anderson & Travis W. Reynolds & Pierre Biscaye, 2019. "Methods of crop yield measurement on multi-cropped plots: Examples from Tanzania," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 11(6), pages 1257-1273, December.
    2. Alia, Didier Y. & Wineman, Ayala Y. & Anderson, C. Leigh, 2020. "Development Assistance and Factor Markets In Nigeria: An Application of the Test of Agricultural Household Separability," 2020 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, Kansas City, Missouri 304474, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

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