Caught in a Productivity Trap : A Distributional Perspective on Gender Differences in Malawian Agriculture

Kilic, Talip ; Palacios-Lopez, Amparo ; Goldstein, Markus

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT;    AGRICULTURAL GROWTH;    AGRICULTURAL INPUTS;    AGRICULTURAL OUTPUT;    AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE;   

RP-ID  :  86182

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The vast majority of households inMalawi are involved in agriculture, and improvingagricultural productivity, particularly for women, who tendto attain lower yields than men, could lead to significantpoverty reduction and improvements in gender equality. Thisstudy asks two main questions: (1) exactly how great are thedifferences in agricultural productivity between men andwomen in Malawi? And (2) how much of the gender gap isexplained by differences in levels of agricultural inputsvs. differences in returns to these inputs? The author tracethe varying constraints faced by farmers at different levelsof productivity, as well as at average productivity, a levelof analysis that is crucial for designing effectiveinterventions aimed at bridging the gender gap. We find thaton average, female-managed plots are 25 percent lessproductive than plots managed by males. Further, the gendergap widens significantly as agricultural productivityincreases. More than 80 percent of the mean gender gap isexplained by differences in levels of agricultural inputs,suggesting that addressing market and institutional failuresunderlying these differences could have direct economic benefits.