Assessing the Impact of Massive Out-Migration on Agriculture

Nancy McCarthy, Calogero Carletto, Benjamin Davis and Irini Maltsoglou
Additional contact information
Nancy McCarthy: International Food Policy Research Institute Washington, D. C.
Irini Maltsoglou: Food and Agriculture Organization

No 06-14, Working Papers from Agricultural and Development Economics Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO - ESA)

Abstract: Over the past several years, rural areas in transition countries have experienced a structural transformation of their agricultural sectors combined with profound demographic changes, primarily due to massive out-migration towards urban areas and abroad. Despite the potential relevance of migration – and the resulting remittances – in fostering, or hindering, transformation in agriculture, very little is understood about the linkages between these activities. Using data from two waves of the Albania Panel Survey carried out between 2002 and 2003, this paper is an attempt to contribute to a better understanding of the role migration has played in the re-allocation of resources in agriculture among migrant families in Albania, a country which epitomizes the power of change associated with out-migration. As per the hypothesis, our findings suggest that migration exerts a strong downward pressure on agricultural labor per capita. However, the evidence also suggests that the loss in household labor in agriculture is compensated by increased access to capital, leading to overall improvements in both agricultural and total incomes.

Keywords: Migration; agriculture; household production. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D13 Q12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 31 pages
Date: 2006
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

Downloads: (external link)
ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/009/ah631e/ah631e00.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Assessing the impact of massive out-migration on agriculture (2006)
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:fao:wpaper:0614

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Agricultural and Development Economics Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO - ESA) Agricultural Sector in Economic Development Service FAO Viale delle Terme di Caracalla 00153 Rome Italy. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Gustavo Anríquez ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).