Spreading the love around: how does agricultural labor demand respond to temporary weather shocks?
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This is the first study to separately identify labor demand responses to both unanticipated droughts and periods of above normal rainfall for three forms of agricultural labor that are central to agricultural production: family, hired, and mutual exchange labor. I use a simple parcel‑level model with three labor types and monitoring costs to study how family labor is reallocated across parcels during drought. In six countries I find small but statistically significant decreases in the share of hired labor during droughts and during periods of above-normal rainfall, indicating a strong reliance on family labor during shocks. I find that farm households appear to lean heavily on exchange labor by using exchange labor more frequently during periods of above-normal rainfall. Due to the heavy reliance on family labor, household size and the gender of the household head are important moderating factors. Women-headed households appear to be significantly more constrained in how they apply labor on family farms. My findings underscore that these labor types are distinct in how they respond to temporary weather shocks. The results of my analysis have important implications for policies targeted at stimulating agricultural labor markets.
Asymmetric information, the digital divide, and the gender price gap
(Joint w/Jawoo Koo (IFPRI))
This paper analyzes transaction data from agricultural surveys carried out in five countries in the developing world to test for a difference in the prices received by men and by women marketing the same crop in the same village. In a unique finding, we identify a gap between the price received by women and the price received by men on three separate continents. Echoing similar results from other countries in sub-Saharan Africa, we provide evidence, using mobile phone ownership and use data, to suggest that women who farm likely suffer from unequal access to information. The presence of asymmetric information is therefore indicated to be a limiting factor in women's ability to receive a fair unit price.
Let the data shine: focusing in on nighttime lights
(w/Jean-Louis Arcand, Global Development Network)
This paper links the newest generation of nighttime satellite images, which offer a resolution 45 times higher than the previous generation, to administrative panel-data on population and income from the United States and Brazil for 2012-2020. We confirm that nighttime light increases with income per capita at a high geospatial resolution, even after controlling for the effect of population density on nighttime light.
Assessing Land Area from Above: Evidence from Armenia
(Joint w/Sydney Gourlay and Alberto Zezza (World Bank))
Using primary data collected by the World Bank in Armenia as part of a randomized controlled trial, we evaluate the use of a satellite image tracing to measure agricultural land in the context of a household survey. Satellite tracing offers several benefits, including a large reduction in the cost of measuring land, the potential to measure more parcels of land, and improved security for survey enumerators. We find the satellite tracing approach yields consistent results, and requires 42% less time than measuring with GPS, and provides value-added over self-reported estimates. Due to the potential cost savings, and other non-trivial benefits, we suggest that land measurement via satellite image tracing offers significant value, though is not as accurate as land area estimates conducted with a handheld GPS.