TY - JOUR
T1 - Surplus labour and productivity in Chinese agriculture
T2 - Evidence from household survey data
AU - Cook, Sarah
N1 - Funding Information:
Sarah Cook is a Fellow of the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex. The author would like to thank Bob Baulch, Denise Hare, Jonathan Morduch, Dwight Perkins, Tom Rawski, Terry Sicular, Adrian Wood and a reviewer for particularly helpful comments on earlier drafts, and to acknowledge financial support from the Institute for the Study of World Politics, Washington, DC, during the writing of the dissertation from which this contribution is adapted.
PY - 1999
Y1 - 1999
N2 - This study investigates whether the concept of surplus labour adequately characterises the labour conditions facing rural Chinese households, and the implications of such a surplus for household labour allocation. Using household survey data from one county in north China, we first estimate the marginal products of labour in agricultural and non-agricultural activities; these are compared with the returns to labour in other activities. The marginal returns to agricultural labour are found to be a fraction of those to non-agricultural labour, consistent with the existence of surplus labour and constraints on labour mobility. Investigation of the variation in marginal returns across activities and households illustrates the importance of village characteristics and household endowments, including demographic composition and political connections, in determining a household's capacity to transfer labour out of agriculture.
AB - This study investigates whether the concept of surplus labour adequately characterises the labour conditions facing rural Chinese households, and the implications of such a surplus for household labour allocation. Using household survey data from one county in north China, we first estimate the marginal products of labour in agricultural and non-agricultural activities; these are compared with the returns to labour in other activities. The marginal returns to agricultural labour are found to be a fraction of those to non-agricultural labour, consistent with the existence of surplus labour and constraints on labour mobility. Investigation of the variation in marginal returns across activities and households illustrates the importance of village characteristics and household endowments, including demographic composition and political connections, in determining a household's capacity to transfer labour out of agriculture.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0032766967&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/00220389908422572
DO - 10.1080/00220389908422572
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0032766967
SN - 0022-0388
VL - 35
SP - 16
EP - 44
JO - Journal of Development Studies
JF - Journal of Development Studies
IS - 3
ER -