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The effect of land inheritance on youth employment and migration decisions: Evidence from rural Ethiopia:

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  • Kosec, Katrina
  • Ghebru, Hosaena
  • Holtemeyer, Brian
  • Mueller, Valerie
  • Schmidt, Emily

Abstract

In Ethiopia, there are two binding forces (push and pull) that deserve attention when it comes to youth occupational and spatial mobility choices and the national land use and transfer policy. On the one hand, the fact that the land rental market in Ethiopia is supply constrained due to market and policy distortions marginalizes youth and serves as a push factor leading them to look elsewhere for a livelihood strategy. On the other hand, the regulatory conditions and restrictions attached to land use and inheritance rights may serve as a pull factor and force youth to be tied to the rural and/or farming sector. Our study thus aims to explore how youth land access (both inheritance and market-based) affects their migration and employment decisions. We explore this question in the context of rural Ethiopia using panel data from 2010 and 2014. We find that larger expected land inheritances significantly lower the likelihood of long-distance permanent migration and of permanent migration to urban areas during this time. Inheriting more land is also associated with a significantly higher likelihood of employment in agriculture and a lower likelihood of employment in the nonagricultural sector. Conversely, the decision to attend school is unaffected. These results appear to be most heavily driven by males and by the older half of our youth sample. We also find several mediating factors matter. Land inheritance plays a much more pronounced role in predicting rural-to-urban permanent migration and nonagricultural-sector employment in areas with less vibrant land markets and in relatively remote areas (those far from major urban centers). Overall, the results reaffirm the notion that push factors dominate pull factors in dictating occupational and migration decisions in Ethiopia and highlight youth preferences to use migration or non-agricultural employment as a last resort after exhausting other means of accessing land, such as temporary land rental.

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  • Kosec, Katrina & Ghebru, Hosaena & Holtemeyer, Brian & Mueller, Valerie & Schmidt, Emily, 2017. "The effect of land inheritance on youth employment and migration decisions: Evidence from rural Ethiopia:," ESSP working papers 104, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    • Handle: RePEc:fpr:esspwp:104
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    3. Abay, Kibrewossen & Hirvonen, Kalle & Minten, Bart, 2017. "Farm size, food security, and welfare: Descriptive evidence from the Ethiopian highlands," ESSP working papers 111, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    4. Chen, Joyce & Kosec, Katrina & Mueller, Valerie, 2019. "Moving to despair? Migration and well-being in Pakistan," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 186-203.
    5. Pierre Boulanger & Emanuele Ferrari & Alfredo Mainar Causape & Martina Sartori & Mohammed Beshir & Kidanemariam Hailu & Solomon Tsehay, 2019. "Policy Options to support the Rural Job Opportunity Creation Strategy in Ethiopia," JRC Research Reports JRC117916, Joint Research Centre.
    6. Yeboah, F. Kwame & Jayne, T.S., 2016. "Africa’S Evolving Employment Structure," Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security Policy Research Papers 259511, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security (FSP).
    7. Kalyuzhna, Julia & Pisarenko, Denis & Nesterenko, Sergey, 2018. "Стратегічне Управління Трудовими Ресурсами Аграрних Підприємств На Засадах Маркетингу," Agricultural and Resource Economics: International Scientific E-Journal, Agricultural and Resource Economics: International Scientific E-Journal, vol. 4(2), June.
    8. Christophe Muller & Nouréini Sayouti, 2019. "How do agro-pastoral policies affect the dietary intake of agro-pastoralists in Niger?," Working Papers halshs-02165137, HAL.
    9. Kang, Munsu & Schwab, Benjamin & Yu, Jisang, 2020. "Gender differences in the relationship between land ownership and managerial rights: Implications for intrahousehold farm labor allocation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    10. Arulingam, I, & Nigussie, L. & Senaratna Sellamuttu, S. & Debevec, L., 2019. "Youth participation in small-scale fisheries, aquaculture and value chains in Africa and the Asia-Pacific," Monographs, The WorldFish Center, number 40844, April.
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    Keywords

    ETHIOPIA; EAST AFRICA; AFRICA SOUTH OF SAHARA; AFRICA; agriculture; employment; migration; youth; land inheritance;
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