Participation by men and women in off-farm activities: An empirical analysis in rural northern Ghana

Nancy McCarthy and Yan Sun

No 852, IFPRI discussion papers from International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

Abstract: "Using survey data from the Upper East region of Ghana collected in 2005, the paper evaluates the household- and community-level factors influencing women's and men's decisions to participate in off-farm activities, either in the off-farm labor market or in local community groups, and the relationship with on-farm crop returns. Results indicate that crop returns are not affected by increased labor availability over a certain labor-land ratio. Female participation in off-farm labor markets increases at higher levels of labor availability, but participation in women's groups' only increases as labor scarcity is relaxed at lower levels. Alternatively, male participation in off-farm work increases over all levels of labor availability. Results also indicate that male labor is relatively more productive on-farm versus off-farm than female labor, and, though education increases the likelihood that both women and men will work off-farm (with no impact on crop revenues), the impact is greater for women. Finally, participation in off-farm work does not appear to be driven by the need to reduce exposure to risk or to manage risk ex post; wealthier households located in wealthier communities are more likely to participate in off-farm work. Evidence for participation in groups and risk is more complicated; wealthier households in wealthier communities are also more likely to participate, but so too are female-headed households with higher dependency ratios." from authors' abstract

Keywords: Off-farm labor supply; Participation; Community groups; Gender; Land management; Poverty reduction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-agr, nep-dev and nep-lab
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Participation by Men and Women in Off-Farm Activities: an Empirical Analysis in Rural Northern Ghana (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fpr:ifprid:852

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