Introduction The objective of this chapter is to investigate the relationship between the growth of off-farm employment opportunities and educational attainment in rural China. Since the beginning of the reform era in the late-1970's off-farm employment has surged and education levels have risen dramatically. However, a persistent gap has formed between rural and urban areas, both in terms of i...

Using long-term household panel data in rural villages in the Philippines, Thailand, Bangladesh and Tamil Nadu (India), this paper attempts to describe the changing sources of household income and to identify major factors affecting the decline in poverty in rural Asia. We found that the most decisive factor directly responsible for poverty reduction is the increased income from rural non-farm ...

This essay assesses the relationship between farm size and productivity. Both parametric and nonparametric methods are used to derive efficiency measures. Smaller farms are found to have higher net farm income per hectare, and to be more technically efficient, than larger farms. JEL Classifications: Q12, O12

The valuation of farmland is a perennial issue for agricultural policy, given its importance in the farm investment portfolio. Despite the significance of farmland values to farmer wealth, prediction remains a difficult task. This study develops a dynamic information measure to examine the informational content of farmland values and farm income in explaining the distribution of farmland values...

The fall of the Berlin wall has led to a monumental change in the social and economic structure of most countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the CIS that have profoundly affected the nature of the rural sector and the livelihood opportunities open to rural residents. Prior to 1990, most of these countries had de facto abolished private property rights in favor of state or cooperati...

This essay assesses the relationship between farm size and productivity. Both parametric and nonparametric methods are used to derive efficiency measures. Smaller farms are found to have higher net farm income per hectare, and to be more technically efficient, than larger farms. JEL Classifications: Q12, O12

This article joins the debate over the effect of market-driven economic development on women’s work opportunities and household gender inequalities. It assesses women’s opportunities for off-farm employment, the relative contributions of female off-farm workers to household income, and the distribution of power in families whose male members have left for off-farm jobs, leaving women behind in ...

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 paper reviews major lines of theoretical and empirical research on farm household production choices in developing countries. It provides a wide-ranging literature review of different microeconomic approaches to peasant economy, shedding light on the underlying reasons that lead modern development economists away from the neoclassical framework to study “real people in real environments.” ...

This study applied multi agent simulation to investigate the impact of farm credit (an agricultural land-use change adaptation strategy) on farm household livelihood. General household and land use data were obtained from 186 sampled household. Two household types were identified; the first household type was better-off in terms of land area cultivated and income generated from rain-fed rice. O...