Many fear China’s accession to WTO will impoverish its rural people, via greater import competition in its agricultural markets. We explore that possibility bearing in mind that, even if producer prices of some (land-intensive) farm products fall, prices of other (labor-intensive) farm products could rise. Also, the removal of restrictions on exports of textiles and clothing could boost town an...

This study investigates the perception of historic changes in climate and associated impact on local agriculture among smallholders in pastoral/agropastoral systems of Borana in southern Ethiopia. We drew on empirical data obtained from farm household surveys conducted in 5 districts, 20 pastoral/agropastoral associations and 480 farm households. Using this data, this study analyses smallholder...

This paper is motivated by the fact that (part-time) individual farming is commonly observed among rural households in a number of transition economies but it is not clear prima facie if such resource allocation is optimal. A conceptual model of household labor allocation between individual farming and off-farm wage employment is developed. The model explicitly accounts for the role of househol...

This paper evaluates the impact of some key labor market reforms on rural-urban inequality and income distribution, using a household-disaggregated, recursive dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of China. We also explore how these factor market reforms interact with product market reforms currently underway as part of China's WTO accession process. The simulation results show tha...

INTRODUCTION Rural Road connectivity is a key component of rural development, since it promotes access to economic and social services, thereby generating increased agricultural productivity, non-agriculture employment as well as non-agricultural productivity, which in turn expands rural growth opportunities and real income through which poverty can be reduced. A study (Fan et al. 1999) carried...

Ill health is very expensive and could have significant impact on household consumptions. The purpose of this study is to examine the differences in household consumption patterns among households with or without ill health family member(s) in rural China. We also examine the opportunity cost of ill health by estimating the marginal effects of medical spending on consumption patterns. The data ...

Bushmeat is an important resource in the livelihoods of many rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa and may be a crucial safety-net for the most vulnerable households, especially during times of economic hardship. However, little is known about the impacts of wildlife depletion on these functions. This study quantifies the role of bushmeat in diversified rural household economies in a wildlife...

Agriculture in North America is. highly integrated with the other sectors of the economy through markets for farm inputs,' farm products, consumer goods, and labor; During the early 1950s, and to a-iesser-extent during the early 1980s, farm households incomes were depressed-relative to nonfarm household incomes. The reasons"were primarily that the-'supply curve for agricultural products had bee...

This paper contributes to the assessment of China’s rural labor markets, while paying attention to whether these markets are developing in a manner conducive to the nation’s modernization. According to our household survey, we find that the rapid increase in off-farm employment has continued and accelerated during the late 1990s. Our analysis shows that migration has become the most prevalent o...

________________________________________________________________________ We assess whether bank branch placement in Bangladesh responds to any unexploited potential for non-farm rural development. The location choices of the famous Grameen Bank are compared to those of more traditional banks. We allow for heterogeneity in household characteristics conducive to success in non-farm activities whe...