Rural Livelihood Diversification Strategies and Household Welfare in Bhutan

Dil Rahut, Khondoker Mottaleb () and Akhter Ali
Additional contact information
Akhter Ali: International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)

The European Journal of Development Research, 2018, vol. 30, issue 4, No 8, 718-748

Abstract: Abstract This paper analyzes rural livelihood diversification strategies and their impact on household welfare using the Bhutan Living Standard Survey 2012. The multinomial estimation shows that education, asset endowment, labor availability, and sex (male/female) of the household head play a vital role in livelihood diversification into non-agricultural sectors. Propensity score matching estimates illustrate that rural households diversifying outside agriculture have higher income and lower poverty levels compared to households pursuing only farming for their livelihoods. Livelihood diversification into non-farm activities can help reduce poverty levels in the range of 6–9 per cent, suggesting the importance of livelihood diversification in reducing poverty and increasing household income in Bhutan.

Keywords: rural livelihood; poverty; income; propensity score matching; Bhutan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C01 D10 Q12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41287-017-0120-5 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
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:pal:eurjdr:v:30:y:2018:i:4:d:10.1057_s41287-017-0120-5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/41287/PS2

DOI: 10.1057/s41287-017-0120-5

Access Statistics for this article

The European Journal of Development Research is currently edited by Spencer Henson and Natalia Lorenzoni

More articles in The European Journal of Development Research from Palgrave Macmillan, European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().