IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/11080.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Rural Non-Farm Employment in Rajasthan : Determinants, Welfare Effects, and Enterprise Performance

Author

Listed:
  • Francis Addeah Darko
  • Akankshita Dey
  • Ritadhi,S. K.

Abstract

This paper examines rural non-farm employment in Rajasthan, India, using multiple surveys and administrative data. The analysis covers three key aspects: individual and district-level determinants of participation in non-farm activities, the relationship between non-farm employment and household welfare, and barriers faced by rural enterprises. The findings show that secondary education strongly predicts participation in non-farm activities, particularly in skilled service sector jobs. However, women and socially marginalized groups face significant barriers in accessing non-farm employment, especially in higher-paying occupations. Households with members in regular non-farm employment, particularly in services, show significantly higher consumption levels, while casual non-farm work yields welfare levels similar to agricultural labor. Rural enterprises face multiple constraints, with lack of local demand and limited access to credit emerging as key barriers to business performance. The results suggest that although non-farm employment can substantially improve household welfare, access to better-paying opportunities remains highly unequal. Policy interventions should ad-dress both human capital development and structural barriers to create more inclusive access to non-farm employment opportunities.

Suggested Citation

  • Francis Addeah Darko & Akankshita Dey & Ritadhi,S. K., 2025. "Rural Non-Farm Employment in Rajasthan : Determinants, Welfare Effects, and Enterprise Performance," Policy Research Working Paper Series 11080, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:11080
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099027203032511696/pdf/IDU-29932de2-a6de-446e-978e-ee26314c2392.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stephan Klasen, 2019. "What Explains Uneven Female Labor Force Participation Levels and Trends in Developing Countries?," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 34(2), pages 161-197.
    2. Andrew D. Foster & Mark R. Rosenzweig, 2022. "Are There Too Many Farms in the World? Labor Market Transaction Costs, Machine Capacities, and Optimal Farm Size," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 130(3), pages 636-680.
    3. Abhijit V. Banerjee & Esther Duflo, 2014. "Do Firms Want to Borrow More? Testing Credit Constraints Using a Directed Lending Program," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 81(2), pages 572-607.
    4. Haggblade, Steven & Hazell, Peter & Reardon, Thomas, 2010. "The Rural Non-farm Economy: Prospects for Growth and Poverty Reduction," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(10), pages 1429-1441, October.
    5. C. Peter Timmer, 2009. "A World Without Agriculture: The Structural Transformation in Historical Perspective," Books, American Enterprise Institute, number 43120, September.
    6. Ellis, Frank, 2000. "Rural Livelihoods and Diversity in Developing Countries," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198296966, Decembrie.
    7. Christopher B. Barrett & Luc Christiaensen & Megan Sheahan & Abebe Shimeles, 2017. "On the Structural Transformation of Rural Africa," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 26(suppl_1), pages 11-35.
    8. Peter Lanjouw & Rinku Murgai, 2009. "Poverty decline, agricultural wages, and nonfarm employment in rural India: 1983–2004," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 40(2), pages 243-263, March.
    9. Frank Ellis, 2000. "The Determinants of Rural Livelihood Diversification in Developing Countries," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(2), pages 289-302, May.
    10. Janvry, Alain de & Sadoulet, Elisabeth, 2001. "Income Strategies Among Rural Households in Mexico: The Role of Off-farm Activities," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 467-480, March.
    11. Barrett, C. B. & Reardon, T. & Webb, P., 2001. "Nonfarm income diversification and household livelihood strategies in rural Africa: concepts, dynamics, and policy implications," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 315-331, August.
    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. Jan Fałkowski & Maciej Jakubowski & Paweł Strawiński, 2014. "Returns from income strategies in rural Poland," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 22(1), pages 139-178, January.
    2. Wunder, Sven & Angelsen, Arild & Belcher, Brian, 2014. "Forests, Livelihoods, and Conservation: Broadening the Empirical Base," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(S1), pages 1-11.
    3. Hänke, Hendrik & Barkmann, Jan, 2017. "Insurance Function of Livestock: Farmer’s Coping Capacity with Regional Droughts in South-Western Madagascar," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 264-275.
    4. Van den Broeck, Goedele & Maertens, Miet, 2017. "Moving Up or Moving Out? Insights into Rural Development and Poverty Reduction in Senegal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 95-109.
    5. Le Zhang & Chuanqing Liao & Huan Zhang & Xiaobo Hua, 2018. "Multilevel Modeling of Rural Livelihood Strategies from Peasant to Village Level in Henan Province, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-13, August.
    6. Dzanku, Fred Mawunyo, 2018. "The gender and geography of rural off-farm employment and input intensification in five sub-Saharan African countries," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 37-51.
    7. VAN DEN BROECK, Goedele & MAERTENS, Miet, 2016. "Moving Up or Moving Out? Insights on Rural Development and Poverty Reduction in Senegal," Working Papers 242367, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Centre for Agricultural and Food Economics.
    8. Fred Mawunyo Dzanku, 2020. "Poverty Reduction And Economic Livelihood Mobility In Rural Sub‐Saharan Africa," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(5), pages 636-683, July.
    9. Musa Hasen Ahmed & Kumilachew Alamerie Melesse, 2018. "Impact of off-farm activities on technical efficiency: evidence from maize producers of eastern Ethiopia," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 6(1), pages 1-15, December.
    10. Nilsson, Pia & Backman, Mikaela & Bjerke, Lina & Maniriho, Aristide, 2017. "One cow per poor family: effects on consumption and crop production in Rwanda," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 462, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    11. Pace, Noemi & Sebastian, Ashwini & Daidone, Silvio & Dela O Campos, Ana Paula & Prifti, Ervin & Davis, Benjamin, 2022. "Cash transfers’ role in improving livelihood diversification strategies and well-being: short- and medium-term evidence from Zimbabwe," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    12. Rahman, Andaleeb, 2018. "Does off-farm income affect food security? Evidence from India," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 273882, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    13. Varun Kumar Das & A. Ganesh-Kumar, 2019. "Off-the-farm livelihood choice of farm households in India," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2019-032, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    14. Zerihun Berhane Weldegebriel & Martin Prowse, 2013. "Climate-Change Adaptation in Ethiopia: To What Extent Does Social Protection Influence Livelihood Diversification?," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 31, pages 35-56, November.
    15. Call, Maia & Gray, Clark & Jagger, Pamela, 2019. "Smallholder responses to climate anomalies in rural Uganda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 132-144.
    16. Gamel Abdul-Nasser Salifu, 2019. "The Political Economy Dynamics of Rural Household Income Diversification: A Review of the International Literature," Research in World Economy, Research in World Economy, Sciedu Press, vol. 10(3), pages 273-290, December.
    17. Nilsson, Pia & Backman, Mikaela & Bjerke, Lina & Maniriho, Aristide, 2019. "One cow per poor family: Effects on the growth of consumption and crop production," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 1-12.
    18. Zeeshan & Geetilaxmi Mohapatra & Arun Kumar Giri, 2022. "How Farm Household Spends Their Non-farm Incomes in Rural India? Evidence from Longitudinal Data," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 34(4), pages 1967-1996, August.
    19. Muhammad Amjed Iqbal & Muhammad Rizwan & Azhar Abbas & Muhammad Sohail Amjad Makhdum & Rakhshanda Kousar & Muhammad Nazam & Abdus Samie & Nasir Nadeem, 2021. "A Quest for Livelihood Sustainability? Patterns, Motives and Determinants of Non-Farm Income Diversification among Agricultural Households in Punjab, Pakistan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-14, August.
    20. Kiros Tsegay & Hongzhong Fan & AM Priyangani Adikari & Hailay Shifare, 2021. "Does gender matter for household livelihood diversification in Ethiopia rural areas?," International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 10(6), pages 221-232, September.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:wbk:wbrwps:11080. 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: Roula I. Yazigi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.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.