Off-farm employment and time allocation in on-farm work in rural China from gender perspective

Weiliang Su (), Tor Eriksson, Linxiu Zhang and Yunli Bai

China Economic Review, 2016, vol. 41, issue C, 34-45

Abstract: This paper sheds light on how the growing number of off-farm employees affects the labor allocation of female and male left-behind farmers in the Chinese agricultural sector. We find no direct effect of off-farm employment on left behind workers' total working time in farming, nor do we observe a gender difference in this respect. However, we do find that increasing off-farm work is associated with fewer days worked on staple crops, and in the harvesting and sales stages of the production process. Hiring labor and buying agricultural services also impact left behind workers' time allocation. Moreover, we find that in China, contrary to several other developing countries, there is no trend towards a feminization of agriculture, but rather a tendency in the reverse direction.

Keywords: Off-farm employees; Left behind farmers; On-farm working days; Gender difference (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:chieco:v:41:y:2016:i:c:p:34-45

DOI: 10.1016/j.chieco.2016.08.006

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