Rural Nonfarm Employment and Incomes in the Eastern Himalayas

Dil Rahut and Maja B. Micevska

No 22, Proceedings of the German Development Economics Conference, Göttingen 2007 from Verein für Socialpolitik, Research Committee Development Economics

Abstract: Nonfarm activities generate on average about 60 percent of rural households? incomes in the eastern Himalayan region of India. This paper analyzes the determinants of participation in nonfarm activities and of nonfarm incomes across rural households. We present and explore an analytical framework that yields different activity choices as optimal solutions to a simple utility maximization problem. A unique data set collected in the eastern Himalayas allows us to closely examine the implications of the analytical framework. We conduct an empirical inquiry that reveals that education plays a major role in accessing more remunerative nonfarm employment. Other household assets and characteristics such as land, social status, geographical location, and credit access also play a role.

Keywords: Nonfarm employment; Rural households; Incomes; Education; India (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O15 O18 Q12 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-cwa and nep-dev
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:gdec07:6545

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