Exposure to large-scale farms increases smallholders’ competitive behavior and closes the gender gap

Menusch Khadjavi, Kacana Sipangule and Rainer Thiele

World Development, 2024, vol. 176, issue C

Abstract: We investigate how exposure to large-scale farms affects smallholders’ competitive behavior. Based on lab-in-the-field experimental measures covering more than 900 smallholders and 400 children in Zambia, we find that smallholders who are traditionally dependent on subsistence agriculture behave more competitively when they are located close to large-scale farms. This effect is especially pronounced for female smallholders and closes the gender gap associated with competitiveness. This result replicates for their children. We identify female employment and shifting intra-household tasks as a possible mechanism. Our results provide new insights for understanding how changes in societal arrangements like market integration influence economic behavior.

Keywords: Market integration; Competitive behavior; Large-scale farms; Smallholders; Endogenous preferences; Lab-in-the-field experiment; Zambia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O12 O13 P11 P14 Q15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X23003376
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: Exposure to large-scale farms increases smallholders' competitive behavior and closes the gender gap (2024)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:176:y:2024:i:c:s0305750x23003376

DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2023.106519

Access Statistics for this article

World Development is currently edited by O. T. Coomes

More articles in World Development from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().