IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fpr/fcnddp/48.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Human capital, productivity, and labor allocation in rural Pakistan

Author

Listed:
  • Fafchamps, Marcel
  • Quisumbing, Agnes R.

Abstract

This paper investigates whether human capital affects the productivity and labor allocation of rural households in four districts of Pakistan. The investigation shows that households with better-educated males earn higher off-farm income and divert labor resources away from farm activities toward nonfarm work. Education has no significant effect on productivity in crop and livestock production. The effect of human capital on household incomes is partly realized through the reallocation of labor from low-productivity activities to nonfarm work. Female education and nutrition do not affect productivity and labor allocation in any systematic fashion, a finding that is consistent with the marginal role women play in market-oriented activities in Pakistan. As a by-product, our estimation approach also tests the existence of perfect labor and factor markets; the hypothesis that such markets exist is strongly rejected.

Suggested Citation

  • Fafchamps, Marcel & Quisumbing, Agnes R., 1998. "Human capital, productivity, and labor allocation in rural Pakistan," FCND discussion papers 48, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    • Handle: RePEc:fpr:fcnddp:48
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ifpri.org/sites/default/files/publications/dp48.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Romer, Paul M, 1986. "Increasing Returns and Long-run Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(5), pages 1002-1037, October.
    2. Huffman, Wallace E & Lange, Mark D, 1989. "Off-Farm Work Decisions of Husbands and Wives: Joint Decision Making," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 71(3), pages 471-480, August.
    3. Phillips, Joseph M, 1987. "A Comment on Farmer Education and Farm Efficiency: A Survey," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 35(3), pages 637-641, April.
    4. George Psacharopoulos, 1985. "Returns to Education: A Further International Update and Implications," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 20(4), pages 583-604.
    5. Tassawar Saeed Ibraz, 1993. "The Cultural Context of Women's Productive Invisibility: A Case Study of a Pakistani Village," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 32(1), pages 101-125.
    6. Lockheed, Marlaine E & Jamison, Dean T & Lau, Lawrence J, 1987. "Farmer Education and Farm Efficiency: Reply," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 35(3), pages 643-644, April.
    7. James J. Heckman, 1976. "The Common Structure of Statistical Models of Truncation, Sample Selection and Limited Dependent Variables and a Simple Estimator for Such Models," NBER Chapters, in: Annals of Economic and Social Measurement, Volume 5, number 4, pages 475-492, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Stokey, Nancy L, 1988. "Learning by Doing and the Introduction of New Goods," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 96(4), pages 701-717, August.
    9. Paul A. Higgins & Harold Alderman, 1997. "Labor and Women's Nutrition: The Impact of Work Effort and Fertility on Nutritional Status in Ghana," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 32(3), pages 577-595.
    10. Huffman, Wallace E, 1980. "Farm and Off-Farm Work Decisions: The Role of Human Capital," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 62(1), pages 14-23, February.
    11. Adams, Richard H. Jr. & He, Jane J., 1995. "Sources of income inequality and poverty in rural Pakistan:," Research reports 102, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    12. de Janvry, Alain & Fafchamps, M. & Sadoulet, Elisabeth, 1991. "Peasant Household Behavior with Missing Markets: Some Paradoxes Explain," CUDARE Working Papers 198579, University of California, Berkeley, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    13. Andrew W. Lo (ed.), 1997. "Market Efficiency," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, volume 0, number 1042.
    14. Sarah Gavian & Marcel Fafchamps, 1996. "Land Tenure and Allocative Efficiency in Niger," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 78(2), pages 460-471.
    15. Thomas, Duncan & Strauss, John, 1997. "Health and wages: Evidence on men and women in urban Brazil," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 159-185, March.
    16. Rosenzweig, Mark R & Wolpin, Kenneth I, 1993. "Credit Market Constraints, Consumption Smoothing, and the Accumulation of Durable Production Assets in Low-Income Countries: Investment in Bullocks in India," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 101(2), pages 223-244, April.
    17. Lockheed, Marlaine E & Jamison, Dean T & Lau, Lawrence J, 1980. "Farmer Education and Farm Efficiency: A Survey," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 29(1), pages 37-76, October.
    18. Reardon, Thomas, 1997. "Using evidence of household income diversification to inform study of the rural nonfarm labor market in Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 735-747, May.
    19. Mark R. Rosenzweig & Kenneth I. Wolpin, 1985. "Specific Experience, Household Structure, and Intergenerational Transfers: Farm Family Land and Labor Arrangements in Developing Countries," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 100(Supplemen), pages 961-987.
    20. Frisvold, George B., 1994. "Does supervision matter? Some hypothesis tests using Indian farm-level data," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 217-238, April.
    21. Lawrence H. Summers, 1992. "Investing in All the People," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 31(4), pages 367-404.
    22. Behrman, Jere & Birdsall, Nancy & Deolalikar, Anil, 1995. "Marriage Markets, Labor Markets, and Unobserved Human Capital: An Empirical Exploration for South-Central India," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 43(3), pages 585-601, April.
    23. Romer, Paul M, 1990. "Endogenous Technological Change," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(5), pages 71-102, October.
    24. Andrew D. Foster, 1995. "Analysis of Household Behavior when Households Choose Their Members: Marriage-Market Selection and Human Capital Allocations in Rural Bangladesh," Home Pages _078, University of Pennsylvania.
    25. Ayal Kimhi & Myoung-jae Lee, 1996. "Off-Farm Work Decisions of Farm Couples: Estimating Structural Simultaneous Equations with Ordered Categorical Dependent Variables," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 78(3), pages 687-698.
    26. Haddad, Lawrence J & Bouis, Howarth E, 1991. "The Impact of Nutritional Status on Agricultural Productivity: Wage Evidence from the Philippines," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 53(1), pages 45-68, February.
    27. Strauss, John & Thomas, Duncan, 1995. "Human resources: Empirical modeling of household and family decisions," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Hollis Chenery & T.N. Srinivasan (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 34, pages 1883-2023, Elsevier.
    28. Sindelar, J. & Thomas, D., 1991. "Measurement of Child Health: Maternal Response Bias," Papers 633, Yale - Economic Growth Center.
    29. Benjamin, Dwayne, 1992. "Household Composition, Labor Markets, and Labor Demand: Testing for Separation in Agricultural Household Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 60(2), pages 287-322, March.
    30. Kurosaki, Takashi & Fafchamps, Marcel, 2002. "Insurance market efficiency and crop choices in Pakistan," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 419-453, April.
    31. Eswaran, Mukesh & Kotwal, Ashok, 1986. "Access to Capital and Agrarian Production Organisation," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 96(382), pages 482-498, June.
    32. John L. Newman & Paul J. Gertler, 1994. "Family Productivity, Labor Supply, and Welfare in a Low Income Country," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 29(4), pages 989-1026.
    33. N. Gregory Mankiw & David Romer & David N. Weil, 1992. "A Contribution to the Empirics of Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(2), pages 407-437.
    34. Andrew D. Foster & Mark R. Rosenzweig, 1993. "Information, Learning, and Wage Rates in Low-Income Rural Areas," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 28(4), pages 759-790.
    35. Yang, Dennis Tao, 1997. "Education and Off-Farm Work," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 45(3), pages 613-632, April.
    36. Cragg, John G, 1971. "Some Statistical Models for Limited Dependent Variables with Application to the Demand for Durable Goods," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 39(5), pages 829-844, September.
    37. Jolliffe, Dean, 1997. "Whose education matters in the determination of household income," FCND discussion papers 39, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    38. Robert William Fogel, 1990. "The Conquest of High Mortality and Hunger in Europe and America: Timing and Mechanisms," NBER Historical Working Papers 0016, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    39. Lin, Tsai-Fen & Schmidt, Peter, 1984. "A Test of the Tobit Specification against an Alternative Suggested by Cragg," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 66(1), pages 174-177, February.
    40. Foster, Andrew D & Rosenzweig, Mark R, 1994. "A Test for Moral Hazard in the Labor Market: Contractual Arrangements, Effort, and Health," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 76(2), pages 213-227, May.
    41. Andrew D. Foster & Mark R. Rosenzweig, 1996. "Comparative Advantage, Information and the Allocation of Workers to Tasks: Evidence from an Agricultural Labour Market," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 63(3), pages 347-374.
    42. Cebu Study Team, 1992. "A child health production function estimated from longitudinal data," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 323-351, April.
    43. Ayal Kimhi, 1996. "Farmers' time allocation between farm work and off‐farm work and the importance of unobserved group effects: evidence from Israeli cooperatives," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 14(2), pages 135-142, July.
    44. Kaushik Basu, 2003. "Analytical Development Economics: The Less Developed Economy Revisited," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262523442, April.
    45. Strauss, J. & Thomas, D., 1995. "Empirical Modeling of Household and Family Decisions," Papers 95-12, RAND - Reprint Series.
    46. Alderman, Harold, et al, 1996. "The Returns to Endogenous Human Capital in Pakistan's Rural Wage Labour Market," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 58(1), pages 29-55, February.
    47. Nancy L. Stokey, 1991. "Human Capital, Product Quality, and Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(2), pages 587-616.
    48. Paul Glewwe & Hanan Jacoby, 1994. "Student Achievement and Schooling Choice in Low-Income Countries: Evidence from Ghana," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 29(3), pages 843-864.
    49. Fafchamps, Marcel, 1993. "Sequential Labor Decisions under Uncertainty: An Estimable Household Model of West-African Farmers," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 61(5), pages 1173-1197, September.
    50. Robert E. Evenson, 1978. "Time Allocation in Rural Philippine Households," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 60(2), pages 322-330.
    51. Subbarao, K & Raney, Laura, 1995. "Social Gains from Female Education: A Cross-National Study," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 44(1), pages 105-128, October.
    52. Mark R. Rosenzweig, 1980. "Neoclassical Theory and the Optimizing Peasant: An Econometric Analysis of Market Family Labor Supply in a Developing Country," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 94(1), pages 31-55.
    53. Harold Alderman & Jere R. Behrman & David R. Ross & Richard Sabot, 1996. "Decomposing the Gender Gap in Cognitive Skills in a Poor Rural Economy," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 31(1), pages 229-254.
    54. de Janvry, Alain & Fafchamps, Marcel & Sadoulet, Elisabeth, 1991. "Peasant Household Behaviour with Missing Markets: Some Paradoxes Explained," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 101(409), pages 1400-1417, November.
    55. Hanan G. Jacoby, 1993. "Shadow Wages and Peasant Family Labour Supply: An Econometric Application to the Peruvian Sierra," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 60(4), pages 903-921.
    56. Bromley, Daniel W & Chavas, Jean-Paul, 1989. "On Risk, Transactions, and Economic Development in the Semiarid Tropics," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 37(4), pages 719-736, July.
    57. Welch, F, 1970. "Education in Production," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 78(1), pages 35-59, Jan.-Feb..
    58. Sahn, David E. & Alderman, Harold, 1988. "The effects of human capital on wages, and the determinants of labor supply in a developing country," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 157-183, September.
    59. Binswanger, Hans P & McIntire, John, 1987. "Behavioral and Material Determinants of Production Relations in Land-Abundant Tropical Agriculture," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 36(1), pages 73-99, October.
    60. Pitt, Mark M & Rosenzweig, Mark R & Hassan, Md Nazmul, 1990. "Productivity, Health, and Inequality in the Intrahousehold Distribution of Food in Low-Income Countries," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(5), pages 1139-1156, December.
    61. Costas Azariadis & Allan Drazen, 1990. "Threshold Externalities in Economic Development," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 105(2), pages 501-526.
    62. Alderman, Harold & Garcia, Marito, 1993. "Poverty, household food security, and nutrition in rural Pakistan:," Research reports 96, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    63. Lucas, Robert Jr., 1988. "On the mechanics of economic development," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 3-42, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pb:p:2859-2939 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Rizov, Marian & Swinnen, Johan F.M., 2004. "Human capital, market imperfections, and labor reallocation in transition," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 745-774, December.
    3. Rizov, Marian, 2005. "Pull and push: individual farming in Hungary," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 43-62, February.
    4. Ranis, Gustav & Stewart, Frances & Ramirez, Alejandro, 2000. "Economic Growth and Human Development," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 197-219, February.
    5. Alejandro Ramirez & Gustav Ranis, 1997. "Economic Growth and Human Development," Working Papers 787, Economic Growth Center, Yale University.
    6. Laszlo, Sonia, 2008. "Education, Labor Supply, and Market Development in Rural Peru," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 2421-2439, November.
    7. Ahituv, Avner & Kimhi, Ayal, 2002. "Off-farm work and capital accumulation decisions of farmers over the life-cycle: the role of heterogeneity and state dependence," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 329-353, August.
    8. Marcel Fafchamps & Agnes R. Quisumbing, 2003. "Social roles, human capital, and the intrahousehold division of labor: evidence from Pakistan," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 55(1), pages 36-80, January.
    9. Jolliffe, Dean, 2004. "The impact of education in rural Ghana: examining household labor allocation and returns on and off the farm," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 287-314, February.
    10. Wang, Xiaobing, 2007. "Labor market behavior of Chinese rural households during transition," Studies on the Agricultural and Food Sector in Transition Economies, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), volume 42, number 92321, September.
    11. Kurosaki, Takashi & Fafchamps, Marcel, 2002. "Insurance market efficiency and crop choices in Pakistan," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 419-453, April.
    12. Tocco, Barbara & Davidova, Sophia & Bailey, Alastair Creation-Date: 2012-02, "undated". "Key Issues in Agricultural Labour Markets: A Review of Major Studies and Project Reports on Agriculture and Rural Labour Markets," Factor Markets Working Papers 126, Centre for European Policy Studies.
    13. Long, N.V. & Wong, K.Y., 1996. "Endogenous Growth and International Trade: A Survey," Working Papers 96-07, University of Washington, Department of Economics.
    14. Sawada, Yasayuki & Lokshin, Michael, 2001. "Household schooling decisions in rural Pakistan," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2541, The World Bank.
    15. Sadoulet, Élisabeth, 2000. "Conférence François-Albert Angers (2000). Marchés imparfaits et modélisation des comportements des ménages paysans : où en sommes-nous?," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 76(4), pages 459-489, décembre.
    16. Muller, Christophe, 2009. "Do agricultural outputs of partly autarkic peasants affect their health and nutrition? Evidence from Rwanda," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 166-175, April.
    17. Ruben, Ruerd & Moll, Henk & Kuyvenhoven, Arie, 1998. "Integrating agricultural research and policy analysis: analytical framework and policy applications for bio-economic modelling," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 58(3), pages 331-349, November.
    18. Chang, Yang-Ming & Huang, Biing-Wen & Chen, Yun-Ju, 2012. "Labor supply, income, and welfare of the farm household," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 427-437.
    19. Wang, Xiaobing & Herzfeld, Thomas & Glauben, Thomas, 2007. "Labor allocation in transition: Evidence from Chinese rural households," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 287-308.
    20. Bharadwaj, Prashant, 2015. "Fertility and rural labor market inefficiencies: Evidence from India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 217-232.
    21. Orazem, Peter F. & King, Elizabeth M., 2008. "Schooling in Developing Countries: The Roles of Supply, Demand and Government Policy," Handbook of Development Economics, in: T. Paul Schultz & John A. Strauss (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 55, pages 3475-3559, Elsevier.

    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:fpr:fcnddp:48. 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: the person in charge (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.