Rural labour issues

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Description: "Recent evidence suggests that the mechanization of agriculture is proceeding rapidly in areas of Myanmar close to the country?s major city, Yangon, as farmers - driven by the need to remain profitable in the face of labor shortages and rising wage rates - adopt a variety of labor saving technologies (Win and Thinzar 2016 ). In this brief, we present findings from the first survey in Myanmar to analyze the supply side of agricultural mechanization..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: Michigan State University (MSU)
2016-12-00
Date of entry/update: 2018-03-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Format : pdf
Size: 1.06 MB
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Description: This research highlight presents findings on key features of rural off-farm work and incomes in Myanmar?s Dry Zone. It is based on analysis of data collected by the Rural Economy and Agriculture in Dry Zone (READZ) survey in 2017. READZ surveyed 1578 households in four townships: Budalin Township (Sagaing Region), Magway and Pwintbyu Townships (Magway Region), and Myittha Township (Mandalay Region). For this study, we define off-farm income as income orig- inating from any work or activity that individuals perform away from their own household?s farm ? thus it includes agricultural work for pay. We divide sources of off-farm income into two categories: ?employment” and ?self-em- ployment”. Employment refers to any activity earning a wage or salary, and includes both temporary casual labor (?wage work”) and steady longer-term employment (?salaried work”). In contrast, ?self-employment” refers to any off-farm activity that remunerates the individual in the form of profits from sales of goods or services. This includes all types of non-farm enterprise (including trade, retail, crafts, and services) as well as self-directed resource extraction activities (fishing, wood collection, etc.)..."
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Source/publisher: Food Security Policy Project Research Highlights Myanmar #10 Myanmar
2017-12-00
Date of entry/update: 2018-03-02
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Format : pdf
Size: 859.63 KB
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Description: Abstract: "This paper develops an agency model of contract choice in the hiring of labor and then uses the model to estimate the determinants of contract choice in rural Myanmar. As a salient feature relevant for the agricultural sector in a low income country such as Myanmar, the agency model incorporates considerations of food security and incentive effects. It is shown that when, possibly due to poverty, food considerations are important for employees, employers will prefer a labor contract with wages paid in kind (food) to one with wages paid in cash. At the same time, when output is responsive to workers? effort and labor monitoring is costly, employers will prefer a contract with piecerate wages to one with hourly wages. The case of sharecropping can be understood as a combination of the two: a labor contract with piecerate wages paid in kind. The predictions of the theoretical model are tested using a crosssection dataset collected in rural Myanmar through a sample household survey which was conducted in 2001 and covers diverse agroecological environments. The estimation results are consistent with the theoretical predictions: wages are more likely to be paid in kind when the share of staple food in workers? budget is higher and the farmland on which they produce food themselves is smaller; piecerate wages are more likely to be adopted when work effort is more difficult to monitor and the farming operation requires quick completion... JEL classification codes: J33, Q12, O12. Keywords: contract, incentive, selection, food security, Myanmar.
Creator/author: Takashi Kurosaki
Source/publisher: Hitotsubashi University Research Unit for Statistical Analysis in Social Sciences
2006-01-00
Date of entry/update: 2008-04-22
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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