Gender differentials in agricultural productivity: evidence from Nepalese household data

Transcription

1 MPRA Munch Personal RePEc Archve Gender dfferentals n agrcultural productvty: evdence from Nepalese household data Srdhar Thapa CIFREM, Faculty of Economcs, Unversty of Trento December 2008 Onlne at MPRA Paper No , posted 4. March :09 UTC

2 Gender dfferentals n agrcultural productvty: evdence from Nepalese household data Srdhar Thapa CIFREM, Faculty of Economcs, Unversty of Trento va Inama 5, Trento, Italy Abstract Ths study analyzes productvty dfferentals between men and women n the peasant agrculture n Nepal. Both Cobb-Douglas and translog producton functons are estmated usng data from the Nepal Lvng Standard Survey 2003/04. Evdence s found for hgher value of margnal product of adult famly male than adult female, whle margnal products of other nputs are found to be relatvely hgher than the prevalng market wages and prces, mplyng that these nputs have become gradually a bndng constrant n producton. Male managed farms produce more output per hectare wth hgher command n market nput use, obtanng credt, and recevng agrcultural extenson servces than female managed farms. In contrast, the result does not clearly support the hypothess of separablty or aggregaton of male and female labour, but there s lttle justfcaton of weak separablty. Moreover, head s sex as proxy for farm manager does not show any dfference between male and female managed farms. However, the coeffcents of locaton and household characterstcs show sgnfcant varatons n farm output among ethnc and caste groups resdng n dfferent ecologcal belts of Nepal. Overall, adult male labour s found to contrbute more n producton process than adult female labour. Keywords: gender dfferentals, agrculture, producton functons, margnal products, Nepal. JEL Classfcatons: Q12, J16, J Introducton The ssue of gender dfferentals n relaton to farm productvty n subsstence farmng has been of specal nterest from the standpont of publc polcy n developng countres, as the dfference s often vewed from the angle of human captal theory and measurement of dscrmnaton. The role of rural women n agrcultural development draws not only the attenton to the academcans but also to the poltcans, assumng that gender equalty does matter for overall economc development and welfare measurement. On academc arena, gender dfferences are often dscussed wth non-homogenous characters and gender specfc constrants that mght vary n the The author would lke to thank anonymous revewers for nsghtful comments. The author would also lke to extend thanks to the Central Bureau of Statstcs, Nepal for allowng to use NLSS data. correspondence: srdthapa@gmal.com 1

3 productvty of men and women. The lterature n ths perspectve shows that yeld dfferences between male and female are due to gender-specfc constrants such as land, labour, access to nputs (.e. fertlzer, modern varety of seeds, oxen and other farm equpments) and credt faced by female managed farms n comparson to male managed farms 1. Such dfferences n Nepal are also explaned by dspartes n physcal and human captal, orgnatng from economc and sococultural dscrmnatons 2 (.e. gender and caste or ethncty dspartes). Gender gaps n terms of labour market partcpaton n the agrcultural sector are common phenomena n many developng countres, where the determnaton of wage rates may be nfluenced by varous factors such as sze of populaton, level of urbanzaton, and the condton of physcal nfrastructures n the partcular regon. Such varaton n wage rates may lmt the labour market partcpaton that often leads to gender dscrmnaton n the labour markets. An understandng of such varatons as well as dscrmnatons s a matter of nterests among economsts and polcy makers n order to fnd the extent of gender dfferentals n farm productvty. The measurement of gender dfferentals n farm productvty requres wde level of data set, partcularly the nformaton related to plot level data managed by both men and women separately. However, such nformaton s not so common n the South Asan regon, where men are consdered to be the head of household regardless of ther role n farm nvestment decsons. It s also true that men are the man decson maker for nvestment, as by Nepalese culture and tradton; men have nherted property rghts of land and other assets n the household. On the other hand, women are normally supposed to be a household head only n the absence of ther male counterparts, ether due to the death of ther husband or seasonal mgraton for wage work. The conventonal method to measure techncal effcency between male and female n farm productvty s the estmaton of pooled regressons by dfferent producton functons (e.g., Cobb-Douglas, Leontef and Translog) wth a dummy varable of the sex of household head (or farm manager). The sgn of the sex dummy normally explans the gender dfferentals n farm productvty. However, techncal effcency measured by the sex dummy may not mply allocatve or economc effcency (Urdy et al. 1995). Moreover, gender gaps are also vewed wth the dfferences n earnngs and wage rates observed n the labour market. Ths dfference s often explaned by the absence of perfect labour market that s lkely to vary n the returns to schoolng. Wage varaton between men and women s 1 Udry (1996) observed that gender specfc constrants were hgher n female managed plot n Afrca whch could lower productvty of female headed. 2 In Nepal, economc and cultural as well as caste dscrmnatons play major role n labour market partcpaton, wage rate determnaton, and farm productvty, partcularly n rural households where subsstence farmng s domnant form n the agrcultural sector (Thapa 2003, 2004 and 2008). 2

4 pervasve n most developng countres, and the lterature observed mperfect substtutes between famly and hred labour as well as male and female labour n most part of farm households 3. 3 In order to measure gender dfferentals n farm productvty from the labour markets, ndrect approaches such as wage or earnng functons of male and female partcpated n the labour markets are used wth takng nto consderaton the ndvdual characterstcs of men and women n the farm labour, whch provde the returns to schoolng for men and women. The dfference n the returns to schoolng s consdered as the gender dfferentals n productvty. In addton to ths, the model such as adopton of technology s also frequently appled to measure the productvty dfferences by gender, assumng that the adopton of new technologes s lkely to vary between men and women, leadng to the dfferences n farm productvty. However, ths paper apples only producton functons for the estmaton of gender dfferentals n farm productvty. A large number of studes have so far been done on gender dfferentals n farm productvty. For nstance, Kumar and Hotchkss (1988) appled translog producton functons for varous crops and tested separablty between men and women n Nepal. They found some evdence of sgnfcantly ndependent margnal products of men and women, but separablty test shows that there s lttle justfcaton for aggregatng men s and women s labour. Jacoby (1992) estmated both Cobb-Douglas and translog sequentally restrcted producton functons n Peruvan Serra and found a hgher productvty for men than women. However, a sgnfcantly hgher productvty of women s found n lvestock producton functons. Moreover, Qusumbng (1995) revewed a number of studes related to male and female managed farms or plots, mostly applyng Cobb-Douglas producton functons that assumed a homogenous technology wthn the country. These studes used a dummy varable of head s sex as proxy for farm management, assumng that the sgnfcant of sex dummy supports the argument of soco-cultural dscrmnaton between male and female workers n the agrcultural sector. However, only two out of ten studes were found to be statstcally sgnfcant wth wrong sgn. These studes found that male managed farms were more productve than female managed farms. A study done by Urdy (1996) usng agronomc panel data set from Burkna Faso explored a hgher yelds controlled by men than women n smlar plots wthn the household planted wth the same crop n the same year. The World Bank polcy report (2001) enttled Engenderng Development explans that nternatonally, women-headed households and women-cultvated plots have produced lower yelds and revenues. Ths paper attempts to explore the productvty dfferentals between men and women, assumng that women are relatvely less productve than men, partcularly n subsstence farmng usng producton functons both Cobb-Douglas and translog (Transcendental Logarthmc). The 3 Jacoby (1992) shows that women s and men s labour are not perfect substtutes n Peru, followed by Abdula and Regm (2001) and Thapa (2003) observed same results n Nepal.

5 ntuton behnd ths argument s due to cultural dfferences and comparatve advantages for men, as a male-domnated socety, women are restrcted to carry out some farm works such as ploughng the land. On the other sde, women are supposed to be specalzed more on labour ntensve works such as seed selecton, plantng, weedng, and applcaton of organc manures (Thapa 2003). Ths allocaton of farm works has also set up the dfferent wage rates as well as the nature of job between men and women n most part of rural Nepal. In addton, women have relatvely less access to property rghts of land and other household assets that may lmt nvestment decson and nnovaton n the agrcultural sector. The remanng part of ths paper s organzed as follows: after descrbng the data and descrptve statstcs n Secton 2, Secton 3 deals the models used n ths paper to measure gender dfferentals n farm productvty. Secton 4 then explans emprcal results both producton functons and fnally summery of fndngs are presented n Secton Data and descrptve statstcs The data used n ths analyss s obtaned from the Nepal Lvng Standard Survey 2003/04 (NLSS II) of the Central Bureau of Statstcs, Nepal. The methodology used n the survey was appled more than 50 developng countres by the World Bank wth the purpose of the Government to montor progress n mprovng lvng condtons and to evaluate the mpact of government polces and programs n the country. NLSS II s the second natonal survey of Nepal conducted by the Central Bureau of Statstcs, Nepal wth techncal and fnancal cooperaton from the World Bank. The survey was appled two-stage samplng procedure to select the sample for the frst stage of the survey (e.g., NLSS 1995/96), n whch the smallest admnstratve unt (.e. the ward of Vllage Development Commttees) was consdered as the prmary samplng unt (PSU) for the survey. The NLSS II was selected 275 wards wth probablty proportonal to sze (PPS) from each of the four ecologcal strata, where sze was measured from the number of households n the ward. For NLSS II, the number of households n each PSU was fxed such as twelve. The total sample sze was 4008 households. However, only 3912 households consstng of 408 households from mountan; 1968 households from hlls; and 1632 households Tera (the southern plan) were enumerated because of nsurgency durng feld survey. Out of 3912 households, ths study uses only the 2360 households, n whch at least one female and male member worked on the famly farm. NLSSs provde a large number of data set about agrcultural actvtes ncludng the nformaton of demographc characterstcs, household actvtes both farm and off-farm, educaton and lteracy, employment status n both farm and off-farm, wage rates and remttances coverng all 4

6 admnstratve and ecologcal zones. For the purpose of ths study, nformaton ncludes the tme allocaton of household members on farm, varous ncome sources, and other household and locaton characterstcs. Descrptve statstcs of the data used n ths paper are gven n Table 1. Total farm ncome s the ncome receved from farm products, by products of anmal and farm, and ncome from lvestock measured n Nepalese Rupees. Total farm land s the land used by the household for agrcultural actvtes ether owned, or rented, or sharecropped durng the survey year and measured n hectare. Irrgaton rato s consdered as the measurement of land qualty whch s common n these exercses. The varable for cash nput s the sum of household expendture on varous tems such as rrgaton, transportaton, seeds, and other farm equpments. In subsstence farmng, households often used ther tradtonal nputs for cultvaton, so that the cash nput s added n one varable due to low expendture of market nputs. However, the expendture on norganc fertlzers s consdered as separate varable for the analyss. Labour nput s dvded nto three categores: adult famly male and female, and hred labour that ncludes both hred and exchange labour. The data also provde the nformaton of lvestock value and the number of lvestock n the sample households. A number of varables representng the household and locaton characterstcs such as sex, age and schoolng of household heads and households belongng to caste group, are ncluded as proxy for management nput. Moreover, the dummy varables for each ecologcal belt are also ncluded n the producton functon, assumng that such varables do matter due to varatons n access to markets, proxmty to roads and other resources. 3. Econometrc specfcatons The conventonal method estmatng the margnal productvty of nputs such as land, labour, and captal s to employ ether male and female productons functons separately or to estmate a pooled regresson wth gender dummy consderng as farm manager or household head (Qusumbng 1996). However, the lterature often explans that producton functon approaches to estmate labour productvty only show the techncal relatonshp between nputs and output specfyng the maxmum level of producton under the avalable level of nputs, and refer also the productvty of an addtonal unt of labour. The common practce to analyse gender dfferentals n techncal effcency s to use the Cobb-Douglas producton functon, whch s as follows: n (1) lnyh = β j ln X jh + γ tdt + u, j= 1 k t= 1 5

7 where Y h s the total value of agrcultural output produced by farm manager n household h. X jh s the quantty of nput j used by farm household h, whereas D t s the vector of the locaton dummes that represent some household and locaton specfc characterstcs. β s and γ s are the parameters to be estmated and u s an error term summarsng the nfluence of other omtted varables. Cobb- Douglas producton functon, despte a convenent to estmate, s more restrctve form that assumes strong separablty between nputs and elastcty of substtuton equal to 1.0. Other less restrctve approach usng Taylor s expansons such as translog producton functon s one of the best alternatves to estmate gender dfferentals. Ths producton functon s consdered as more flexble functonal form n comparson to Cobb-Douglas producton functon. The general form of the translog producton functon can be wrtten as; 1 (2) lny = α0 + α ln X + αj ln X ln X j + ω, 2 j where, Y s the total output. The parameter α0 refers as the state of techncal knowledge and andα are technologcally determned parameters, and ω s an error term. The estmates from the j translog producton functon are used to calculate margnal product (MP) of factor nputs. The MPs of adult famly male and adult female labour nputs are also tested whether both male and female labour nputs are homogenous. On the other hand, separablty assumpton means that margnal rates of substtuton between pars of factors n the separated groups are ndependent of the levels of factors outsde that group (Denny and Fuss 1977). In ths paper, the translog producton functon s presented as follows, (3) Y f ( ln L ( L, L ), ln X ) ln =, t hm hf where L t s total famly labour nput, L hm and L hf are adult famly male and female labour respectvely, whle X s are other nputs such as land, hred labour, fertlzers, and other cash nputs. f(lnl t, lnx ) s assumed to be lnear n lnl t and lnx, and the functon wll be n quadratc form, f the labour nputs of male and female (lnl hm, lnl hf ) are consdered separately. The equaton can test separablty assumpton (.e. the homogenety of male and female labour wth other nputs) by applyng the followng constrant, (4) ln L ln X = ln L ln X = 0, hm hf the translog producton functon s assumed to be lnear of both famly labour and other nputs as declnng margnal product for both, then the coeffcent of squred terms are set equal to 0 (Kumar and Hotkss 1988). The producton functon then remans as follows; (5) lny f ( ln L,ln X,ln L ln X ) =, where L s labour nput of adult famly male and female and X s other nputs as descrbed above. α 6

8 The producton functons such as Cobb-Douglas and translog are often encountered wth the problem of not allowng any of the nputs that take zero value. A number of households are reported zero on hred labour nputs and other cash nputs, ether because they have enough famly members for labour nput on ther farm, or they do not have enough lqudty to hre labour as well as to apply other cash nputs. There are several possble ways to avod the problem of log of zero: one soluton s to delete all those respondents who reported zero nput and keep only postve response; the second opton s to throw out the varables from the regresson analyss; and the thrd opton s to add constant n the nputs by keepng ntact of the orgnal form of the producton functon. The last opton seems to be most palatable. Based on the method appled by MaCurdy and Pencavel (1986) and Jacoby (1992), the constant one s added to all nput varables except farm land and famly labour, whch are always postve by constructon of the sample. Ths opton of addng one s arbtrary, assumng that t s closed to zero, or at least small relatve to the average nput value. 3. Emprcal results Table 2 dsplays the average output and nput per hectare used by male and female headed households wth an am to demonstrate the dfference n farm productvty. The results show slghtly hgher average farm output per hectare n male headed households (NRs ) n comparson to female headed households (NRs ). However, nput use per hectare s found to be a mxed result. For nstance, male headed households appled relatvely more work hours of famly male labour, whle female headed households used more work hours of famly female on the farm. Moreover, work hours of hred labour are found to be hgher n female headed households. On the contrary, male headed households spend more on fertlzers and other nputs bought from the markets. In terms of access to resources, male headed households obtaned more credts and receved hgher average agrcultural extenson servces than ther female counterparts. Ths result ndcates that male headed households have relatvely better access to resources, partcularly n access to new varetes of seeds, norganc fertlzers, agrcultural extenson servces, and farm credt. The estmated parameters of the Cobb-Douglas producton functon s presented n Table 3. The producton functon s appled on the reduced sample of 2360 households wth a dummy varable of female heads as a coeffcent of gender dfferental n techncal effcency. The coeffcent of R 2 (0.51) shows that 51 percent of the varatons n the farm output s explaned by the ncluded varables, combned wth the sgnfcant of F-rato whch mples the data fts the model. The estmated coeffcents are found to be sgnfcant wth expected sgns. For nstance, dummy varable of female headed households s negatve, but not sgnfcantly dfferent from zero, 7

9 mplyng that gender does not have mpact on producton process at least n ths model. Land s found to be an mportant nput n the producton process, n whch households wth hgher rato of rrgated farm land can have hgher productvty. The results further show that adult famly male labour (0.08) has relatvely hgher role n producton process, followed by adult famly female labour (0.07) and hred labour (0.05). Ths result s n lne wth the result of Abdula and Regm (2000) and Jacoby (1992), but s n contrast wth the result of Thapa (2003), Udry et al.(1995), and Skoufas (1994). Hgher expendture on fertlzers and other market related nputs also leads to hgher farm output n Nepal. The result also shows sgnfcant and postve effect of the number of lvestock, mplyng that larger number of lvestock s more lkely to ncrease farm productvty. The results of other household characterstcs are found to be mportant n farm producton process. For nstance, head s educaton has postve mpact on farm producton. It s perhaps due to hgher access of nformaton and other resources n comparson to less educated people, confrmng the wdely accepted role of human captal toward mprovng farmers effcency (Abdula and Huffman 2000). Ths result also supports wth the coeffcent of the so-called hgher caste dummy, n whch there s sgnfcant mpact on farm producton process, f the household belongs to the socalled hgher caste than the so-called lower caste, whch s compatble wth the result of Thapa (2003, 2008). In Nepal, the so-called lower caste (often called as occupatonal caste) groups are relatvely deprved and have less access to resources on land, nformaton, credt and educaton. Lkewse, farm land located n Tera belt (the southern plan area) s found to have hgher yelds than n the northern Hmalayan regon of Nepal. Ths result s probably due to better land qualty, combned wth better access to markets and proxmty to roads. The coeffcent of agrcultural extenson servces s sgnfcant and postve, mplyng that the households recevng agrcultural extenson servces are more lkely to ncrease farm productvty than the households wthout any agrcultural extenson servces. Ths s probably due to better nformaton about hgh yeld seed varetes and new technques for farm cultvaton. However, the coeffcents of consumer workers rato and age of household head do not show any sgnfcant mpact on farm producton. Ths paper further estmated the translog producton functon (Table 4) and then calculated margnal products and factor shares for each nput as ts mean value n use from the estmated parameters. The lnear terms of the translog producton estmates are found to be sgnfcant except norganc fertlzer expendture and are mostly compatble wth the results of Cobb-Douglas producton functon wth some exceptons. The coeffcent of land nput s found to be hghest nfluence on producton process, followed by adult famly female and adult male labour, and hred labour. However, only few nteracton terms are found to be sgnfcant n the producton functon. For nstance, the nteracton of adult famly male labour and hred labour has negatve mpact on 8

10 farm output. Lkewse, the nteracton terms of hred labour and farm land, adult famly female labour and cash nputs, and hred labour and cash nputs are sgnfcant and have negatve sgns, mplyng that ncrease n the combnaton of these nputs s more lkely to reduce farm output n Nepalese agrculture. However, the combned expendture of fertlzers and other cash nputs has postve mpact n farm output. Conclusvely, the results from the nteracton terms do not satsfy strong separablty assumpton, but there s lttle evdence of weak separablty wth adult famly male and hred labour, adult famly female and cash nputs. In other words, ths result has lttle justfcaton of aggregatng labour nput of both men and women, as explaned by Kumar and Hotchkss (1988). Table 5 shows the results of margnal products and factor shares calculated from the translog producton functon, n whch the aggregate factor share of labour nput (0.56) s sgnfcantly hgher than other factor nputs. However, the share of farm land (0.31) as a sngle nput s much hgher than other nputs. The share of market nputs, partcularly norganc fertlzers (0.06) and other cash nputs (0.06) s found to be relatvely low n ths result. The margnal product value of nputs except adult famly male and female s found to be hgher than prevalng wage rates and prces, mplyng that farmers are constraned by other nputs such as farm nvestment on fertlzers and seeds as well as hred labour. For nstance, the margnal product of hred labour s Rs per day, whch s sgnfcantly hgher than the prevalng wage rate n the agrcultural sector n Nepal, ndcatng that margnal products are not so comparable to the margnal products of nputs. Ths s somehow an ndcaton of ncomplete and mssng factor markets n most resource-poor rural economes. On the other hand, the margnal product of adult famly male and female labour seems to be lower than other nputs and prevalng wage rates n Nepal. The lower margnal products may be due to seasonal labour demand n farm sector and lmted off-farm employment opportuntes. The margnal product of adult famly male and female whch s the man nterest of ths paper s found to be sgnfcant wth dfferent values, showng that the margnal product of adult famly male labour (Rs per hour) s relatvely hgher than the margnal product of adult famly female labour (Rs per hour), acceptng the hypothess of gender dfferental n farm productvty. Ths result contrasts wth the result of Kumar and Hotchkss (1988) for wheat, maze and mustard farms, but supports for early paddy farm. Ths study also calculated the margnal products and factor shares for large and small farms (Table 6), and the results are found to be smlar for factor shares, but some dfferences n margnal products. For nstance, margnal products of labour, fertlzers and other cash nputs are found to be hgher on large farms, whle margnal product of land s sgnfcantly hgher on small farms. 9

11 4. Conclusons There s growng nterest on academc arena about gender dfferentals n agrcultural productvty, partcularly n developng countres due to varaton n resource accessblty between men and women as well as among ethnc groups. These varatons and dfferences are often analysed wth the theory of ncomplete and mssng markets, and other form of soco-cultural dscrmnatons. Ths paper attempts to analyse the productvty of men and women n the Nepalese agrculture, usng NLSS 2003/04 data. The study frst estmated Cobb-Douglas producton functon wth a dummy varable of female headed households and also appled translog producton functon, and then calculated margnal products and factor shares of agrcultural producton functon. Ths paper frst calculates average nputs and output per hectare between male and female headed households separately. The result shows slghtly hgher average farm output per hectare n male n comparson to female headed households. Adult famly male works hgher on the farm land of male headed households, whle female works more on the farm land of female headed households. For other nputs, female headed households hre more labour but apply less market nputs. The results from Cobb-Douglas producton functon show that there s no sgnfcant effect between male and female headed households. Land s found to be hgher effect on farm producton process, followed by adult famly male, adult famly female, and hred labour. There s postve mpact of market nputs such as fertlzers and other cash nputs on farm output, but lower than other nputs. Farm output s found to be hgher on rrgated than non-rrgated land. Moreover, household characterstcs such as households belongng to the so-called hgher caste group, educaton level of household head, and land located on the southern plan area do matter on farm producton process. The results from translog producton are mostly found to be compatble wth Cobb-Douglas producton functon, partcularly n lnear terms. However, few nteracton terms are sgnfcant n the model. For example, the nteracton of the expendture on fertlzers and other cash nputs has postve mpact, whle the nteracton terms of hred labour and farm land, famly female labour and cash nputs, and hred labour and cash nputs have negatve mpact on producton process. Factor shares calculated from translog producton functon show a hgher share from farm land. However, aggregate factor share of total labour nput s sgnfcantly hgher than other nputs. The factor share of the expendture on fertlzers and other cash nputs s relatvely lower than other nputs. The margnal product value of other nputs s found to be hgher than the exstng market rates except famly adult male and adult female, n whch margnal product of adult famly male and female shows a labour surplus n farm households, but households are constraned by other nputs. 10

12 Margnal products are relatvely lower on small farm, but land nput s found to be sgnfcantly hgher on small farms. Margnal products between adult famly male and female whch s the man nterest of ths study show a sgnfcantly dfferent value, n whch MP of adult famly male s relatvely hgher than adult female. The separablty test does not show sgnfcantly dfferent results, but there s lttle support for weak separablty, partcularly famly adult male and hred labour, famly adult female and cash nputs. Conclusvely, though the fndngs do not clearly support the separablty of gender dfferentals n the model, there s some justfcaton of gender dfferentals n farm productvty and margnal products, combned wth the dfferences n margnal products of small and large farms. The study further needs to be focused on plot level data managed by men and women separately. Based on the fndngs, polcy needs to focus on the reducton of caste or ethnc dspartes as well as regonal mbalance n order to mnmze dspartes n farm productvty between men and women as well as among ethnc and caste groups. References Abdula, A. and P.P. Regm Estmatng labour supply of farm households under nonseparablty: emprcal evdence from Nepal. Journal of Agrcultural Economcs 22: Abdula, A. and W.E. Huffman Structural adjustment and effcency of rce farmers n Northern Ghana. Economc Development and Cultural Change 48(3): Central Bureau of Statstcs Nepal Lvng Standard Survey 2003/04. Government of Nepal, Kathmandu. Deny, M. andm. Fuss The use of approxmaton analyss to test for separablty and the exstence of consstent aggregates. Amercan Economc Revew 67(3): Jacoby, H Productvty of men and women and the sexual dvson of labour n peasant agrculture of the Peruvan Serra. Journal of Development Economcs 37: Kumar, S. and D. Hotchkss Consequences of deforestaton for women s tme allocaton, agrcultural producton, and nutrton n hll areas of Nepal. Research Report 69 (Washngton, DC: Internatonal Food Polcy Research Insttute, 1988). MaCurdy, T. E. and J.H. Pencavel Testng between competng models of wage and employment determnaton n unonzed markets. Journal of Poltcal Economy 94(3): S3- S39. 11

13 Qusumbng, A.R Male-female dfferences n agrcultural productvty: methodologcal ssues and emprcal evdence. World Development 24(10): Skofas, E Usng shadow wages to estmate labour supply of agrcultural households. Amercan Journal of Agrcultural Economcs 76: Thapa, Srdhar Estmaton of the Agrcultural Household Labour Supply: A Case from Mard Watershed Area, Kask, Nepal. Dssertaton submtted to partal fulflment of Masters of Scence n Development and Resource Economcs, Department Economcs and Socal Scence, Agrcultural Unversty of Norway. Thapa, Srdhar Labour force partcpaton n agrcultural households n Nepal: a probt model analyss. The Economc Journal of Nepal 27(4): Thapa, Srdhar The relatonshp between farm sze and productvty: emprcal evdence from the Nepalese md-hlls. Munch Personal RePEc Archve (MPRA) Paper No Udry et al Gender dfferentals n farm productvty: mplcatons for household effcency and agrcultural polcy. Food Polcy 20(5): Urdy C Gender, agrcultural producton and the theory of household. Journal of Poltcal Economy 104(51): World Bank Engenderng development. A World Bank polcy research report, Washngton, DC: World Bank Press. 12

14 Table 1: Descrptve statstcs of the study area Appendxes Varables Descrpton of varables Mean Standard Dev. Farm ncome Income from farm products plus sale of anmal ncome & by other products) Total land Farmland both owned and sharecropped n hectare Irrgated land Rato of rrgated land on total farmland Male labour Hours farm works on own farm (16+ years) Female labour Hours farm works on own farm(16+ years) Hred labour Work hours of hred and exchange labour Total cash nput Expendture on seed, rrgaton, oxen and other machnery equpments Fertlzers Expendture on norganc fertlzers Household and locaton characterstcs Sex of household head Dummy: 1 f household head s Head s age Age of household head Head s schoolng Years schoolng of head cwrato Consumer-workers rato (adult /total famly members) Hgher caste Dummy: 1 f household s the so-called hgher caste Medum caste Dummy: 1 f household s the so-called medum caste Lower caster Dummy: 1 f household s the so-called lower caste Mountan Dummy: 1 f household s located n mountan belt Hlls Dummy: 1 f household s located n hlly belt Tera Dummy: 1 f household s located n Tera belt (the southern plan) Source: NLSS 2003/04, CBS Nepal. Monetary values are n Nepalese currency. Table 2: output, nput use and farm credt per hectare Farm Cash Own male Own female Hred Fertlzer credt output nput labour labour labour Male Female Note: labour tme s calculated n hours, whle output and expendture are n Nepalese currency (.e. 1US$=NRs. 77.9) 13

15 Table 3: Estmaton of Cobb-Douglas producton functon Explanatory Varables Estmated parameters Standard Devaton Gender(1=female) Log of total farm land n hectare 0.32*** Rato of rrgated land 0.14*** Log of famly male labour 0.077*** Log of famly female labour 0.069*** Log of hred labour 0.050*** Log of fertlzer 0.022*** Log of other cash nputs 0.059*** Total number of lvestock 0.012*** Consumer Worker s rato Educaton level of household head 0.01** Age of household head Agrcultural extenson servce(1=yes) 0.38*** Caste dummy (1=hgher ) 0.34*** Caste dummy (1=medum) 0.079* Hll dummy (1=hlls) Tera dummy (1=tera, southern plan ) 0.097* Constant 6.97*** R F(17, 2342) *** Number of observatons 2360 ***, **, * sgnfcant at 99%, 95%, and 90% levels respectvely. 14

16 Table 4: Translog producton functon estmates Interacton terms Explanatory Varables Lnear term Ln (male labour) Log of famly male 0.20* labour (0.09) Log of famly female 0.21* labour (0.11) (0.015) Log of total farm land 0.33** n hectare (0.13) (0.016) Log of hred labour 0.19** -0.02** (0.07) (0.008) Log of fertlzer (0.056) (0.005) Log of other cash 0. 06* nputs (0.03) (0.004) Constant 6.14*** (0.85) Ln(female labour) Ln(land) Ln(hred labour) Ln (fert) (0.018) ** (0.009) (0.007) (0.007) (0.006) (0.002) * * 0.008*** (0.004) (0.004) (0.002) (0.001) R F(21, 2338) *** Number of 2360 observatons 15

17 Table 5: Margnal products and factor shares of nputs n farm producton Varables Margnal products Factor shares Famly male labour Famly female labour Hred labour Land Inorganc fertlzers Other cash nput Table 6: Margnal products and factor shares of nputs on small and large farms Large farms Small farms a Varables Margnal products Factor shares Margnal products Famly male labour Famly female labour Hred labour Land Inorganc fertlzers Other cash nput a less than 0.92 hectares (average farm sze n the sample households) are small farms. Factor shares 16