Arbeitspapier

Should Farmers Farm More? Comparing Marginal Products within Malawian Households

According to standard economic theory, households should equate the marginal revenue product of an input across activities within the household. However, this prediction may not hold in the presence of risk. Using data on farm plots and non-farm enterprises in Malawi, we examine the impact of risk on the allocation decisions of agricultural households as they allocate labor across farm and non-farm production. We control for many household and production characteristics, including household fixed effects, and find farm marginal revenue product of labor (MRPL) to be consistently higher than non-farm MRPL. These results hold when restricting estimation to periods of high and low non-farm labor allocation. These results are consistent with farm production being riskier than non-farm production for most households in Malawi. These findings suggest that improved access to insurance of farming activities and wage employment opportunities could increase total household income.

Sprache
Englisch

Erschienen in
Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 14703

Klassifikation
Wirtschaft
Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
Agricultural Labor Markets
Economic Development: Agriculture; Natural Resources; Energy; Environment; Other Primary Products
Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets
Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics: Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population; Neighborhood Characteristics
Thema
labor productivity
agriculture
non-farm production
risk
efficiency

Ereignis
Geistige Schöpfung
(wer)
Brummund, Peter
Merfeld, Joshua D.
Ereignis
Veröffentlichung
(wer)
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
(wo)
Bonn
(wann)
2021

Handle
Letzte Aktualisierung
10.03.2025, 11:43 MEZ

Datenpartner

Dieses Objekt wird bereitgestellt von:
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Objekttyp

  • Arbeitspapier

Beteiligte

  • Brummund, Peter
  • Merfeld, Joshua D.
  • Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Entstanden

  • 2021

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