Arbeitspapier
Risky income or lumpy investments? Evidence on two theories of under-specialization
Why do the poor have so many economic activities? According to one theory the poor do not specialize because relying on one income source is risky. I test the theory by measuring the response of Thai rice farmers to conditional volatility in the international rice price. Households expecting a harvest take on 1 extra activity when the volatility rises by 21 percent. I confirm the decrease in specialization costs households foregone revenue. I find no evidence to back a second theory in which households under-specialize because they cannot afford lumpy business investments.
- Language
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Englisch
- Bibliographic citation
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Series: Working Paper ; No. 723
- Classification
-
Wirtschaft
Household Production and Intrahousehold Allocation
Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
- Subject
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risk
specialization
occupation
rice
Thailand
- Event
-
Geistige Schöpfung
- (who)
-
Shenoy, Ajay
- Event
-
Veröffentlichung
- (who)
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University of California, Economics Department
- (where)
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Santa Cruz, CA
- (when)
-
2014
- Handle
- Last update
-
10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET
Data provider
This object is provided by:
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. If you have any questions about the object, please contact the data provider.
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. If you have any questions about the object, please contact the data provider.
Object type
- Arbeitspapier
Associated
- Shenoy, Ajay
- University of California, Economics Department
Time of origin
- 2014
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