Premium
Participation and Impact of Poverty‐oriented Public Works Projects in Rural Malawi
Author(s) -
Chirwa Ephraim W.,
Zgovu Evious K.,
Mvula Peter M.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
development policy review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.671
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1467-7679
pISSN - 0950-6764
DOI - 10.1111/1467-7679.00163
Subject(s) - poverty , selection bias , reservation , wage , demographic economics , reservation wage , economics , economic growth , socioeconomics , rural poverty , business , labour economics , political science , medicine , pathology , law
This article reports on factors influencing participation in the poverty‐oriented public works programme in rural Malawi and analyses the determinants of the revealed positive socio‐economic impact among the participants. The programme targets poor households through self‐selection by offering a wage below the official minimum for rural areas. The empirical results show that most participants are poor and with little education. Probability of particpation is higher for members of female‐headed households and households with longer periods of food insecurity, excess supply of labour, few assets and reservation wages below the wage offered in the programme. Taking account of selectivity bias, the impact of the programme increases with the gender (female) of participants and the numbers per household participating.