Participation by men and women in off-farm activities: An empirical analysis in rural northern Ghana
| dc.creator | McCarthy, N. | |
| dc.creator | Sun, Y. | |
| dc.date | 2009 | |
| dc.date | 2012-05-21T06:03:08Z | |
| dc.date | 2012-05-21T06:03:08Z | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-06-27T15:03:18Z | |
| dc.description | Using survey data from the Upper East region of Ghana collected in 2005, the paper evaluates the household- and community-level factors influencing women’s and men’s decisions to participate in offfarm activities, either in the off-farm labor market or in local community groups, and the relationship with on-farm crop returns. Results indicate that crop returns are not affected by increased labor availability over a certain labor-land ratio. Female participation in off-farm labor markets increases at higher levels of labor availability, but participation in women’s groups’ only increases as labor scarcity is relaxed at lower levels. Alternatively, male participation in off-farm work increases over all levels of labor availability. Results also indicate that male labor is relatively more productive on-farm versus off-farm than female labor, and, though education increases the likelihood that both women and men will work off-farm (with no impact on crop revenues), the impact is greater for women. Finally, participation in off-farm work does not appear to be driven by the need to reduce exposure to risk or to manage risk ex post; wealthier households located in wealthier communities are more likely to participate in off-farm work. Evidence for participation in groups and risk is more complicated; wealthier households in wealthier communities are also more likely to participate, but so too are female-headed households with higher dependency ratios. | |
| dc.format | application/pdf | |
| dc.identifier | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/17070 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/93226 | |
| dc.language | en | |
| dc.publisher | International Food Policy Research Institute | |
| dc.rights | Open Access | |
| dc.source | McCarthy, N. and Sun, Y. 2009. Participation by men and women in off-farm activities: An empirical analysis in rural northern Ghana. IFPRI Discussion Paper 852. Washington DC, USA: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). 26 p. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/17070 | |
| dc.subject | gender | |
| dc.title | Participation by men and women in off-farm activities: An empirical analysis in rural northern Ghana | |
| dc.type | Working Paper |