Rural households decisions towards income diversification: Evidence from a township in northern China

Sylvie Démurger, Martin Fournier () and Weiyong Yang ()
Additional contact information
Martin Fournier: University of Lyon; CNRS, UMR 5824, GATE, France
Weiyong Yang: University of International Business & Economics, Beijing, China

No 923, Working Papers from Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon St-Étienne (GATE Lyon St-Étienne), Université de Lyon

Abstract: Economic reforms in rural China have brought opportunities to diversify both within-farm activities and off-farm activities. Participation in these activities plays an important role in increasing rural households' income. This paper analyzes the factors that drive rural households and individuals in their income-source diversification choices for ten villages in Northern China. At the household level, we distinguish three types of diversification as opposed to grain production only : within farm (non- grain production) activities, local off-farm activities, and migration. At the individual level, we analyze the determinants of participation in three different types of jobs as compared to agricultural work : local off-farm employment, local self-employment and migration. At the household level, we find that land and labor availability stimulates on-farm diversification. Local off-farm activities are mostly driven by household wealth and credit constraints, while migration decisions strongly depend on the household age and composition. At the individual level, we find a clear gender and age bias in access to off-farm activities that are mostly undertaken by male and by young people. More surprisingly, education is found to play a role for accessing local wage employment but not in migration decision. As at the household level, the household assets position is found to strongly affect participation in any off-farm activity.

Keywords: income-source diversification; agricultural households; off-farm employment; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J2 O53 Q1 R2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 pages
Date: 2009
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-dev, nep-lab and nep-tra
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
ftp://ftp.gate.cnrs.fr/RePEc/2009/0923.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Rural households'decisions towards income diversification: Evidence from a township in northern China (2010)
Working Paper: Rural households decisions towards income diversification: Evidence from a township in northern China (2009)
Working Paper: Rural households decisions towards income diversification − Evidence from a township in northern China (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gat:wpaper:0923

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