Agricultural Productivity and Non-Farm Employment : Evidence from Bangladesh

Shilpi, Forhad ; Emran, Shahe

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: JOBS;    EMPLOYMENT;    AGRICULTURAL GROWTH;    FARM GROWTH;    MOTIVATION;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-7685
RP-ID  :  WPS7685

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This paper provides evidence on theimpacts of agricultural productivity on employment growthand structural transformation of non-farm activities. Toguide the empirical work, this paper develops a generalequilibrium model that emphasizes distinctions amongnon-farm activities in terms of tradable-non-tradable andthe formal-informal characteristics. The model shows thatwhen a significant portion of village income is spent ontown/urban goods, restricting empirical analysis to thevillage sample leads to underestimation ofagriculture's role in employment growth andtransformation of non-farm activities. Using rainfall as aninstrument for agricultural productivity, empirical analysisfinds a significant positive effect of agriculturalproductivity growth on growth of informal (small-scale)manufacturing and skilled services employment, mainly ineducation and health services. For formal employment, theeffect of agricultural productivity growth on employment isfound to be largest in the samples that include urban areasand rural towns compared with rural areas alone.Agricultural productivity growth is found to inducestructural transformation within the services sector withemployment in formal/skilled services growing at a fasterpace than that of low skilled services.