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Seasonal Labor Utilization in Agriculture: Theory and Evidence from Agrarian Households in India
Author(s) -
Skoufias Emmanuel
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
american journal of agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.949
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1467-8276
pISSN - 0002-9092
DOI - 10.2307/1242950
Subject(s) - economics , agriculture , agrarian society , yield (engineering) , sowing , panel data , econometrics , agricultural economics , econometric model , geography , agronomy , materials science , archaeology , metallurgy , biology
This paper develops and tests a dynamic, stochastic model of seasonal labor demand of farm households in a developing country. Seasonality in agriculture is modeled as a dynamic two stage process (planting and harvesting) with sequential dependence of decisions. Yield risk is an important determinant of behavior in the planting stage only. The proposed model is estimated using plot‐specific cross‐section time‐series data from India. Consistent estimates of the male and female labor demand functions in the planting and harvesting stages are obtained by panel data econometric methods that control for the nonseparability of the model.