Non-Farm Enterprise Productivity and Spatial Autocorrelation in Rural Africa: Evidence from Ethiopia and Nigeria

Nkechi Owoo and Wim Naudé

No 8295, IZA Discussion Papers from IZA Network @ LISER

Abstract: The productivity of non-farm enterprises in rural Africa may be associated with the productivity of other spatially proximate farm and non-farm enterprises. To test for the presence and significance of such spatial autocorrelation we use data from the geo-referenced 2011 Ethiopian Rural Socioeconomic Survey (ERSS) and the 2010/2011 Nigeria General Household Survey (NGHS). We find evidence of significant spatial autocorrelation. Productivity of non-farm enterprises is widely dispersed across space in both countries. In Ethiopia rural non-farm enterprises are more productive in locations where farms are less productive. In Nigeria, we find evidence for spatial autocorrelation at the individual enterprise level but not at the community level, once we control for location variables. Hence, taking spatial autocorrelation into account using spatial lag and spatial error models, we find education, age, size of the household, religious affiliation and community infrastructure are significant determinants of the labour productivity of non-farm enterprises in Ethiopia and Nigeria. This is the first time, to the best of our knowledge, that the productivity of rural non-farm enterprises in Africa has been studied in this way.

Keywords: agriculture; rural development; Africa; entrepreneurship; spatial autocorrelation; Ethiopia; Nigeria (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C21 L26 M13 O55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 pages
Date: 2014-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-agr, nep-eff and nep-ent
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Published - published as 'Spatial proximity and firm performance: evidence from non-farm rural enterprises in Ethiopia and Nigeria' in: Regional Studies, 2016, 51 (5), 688–700

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