The Feminisation of Agriculture with Chinese Characteristics

The objectives of this article are to assess whether or not the feminisation of agriculture is occurring in China, and if so, to measure its impact on productivity. To meet these objectives, we rely on three data sets that allow us to explore who works on China's farms and the effects of the labour allocation decisions of rural households on productivity. We find that since the late 1990s, the role of women has increased in both the supply of farm labour and in the duties that they take on in the management of farms. While this expansion is important, we further demonstrate that when women do a majority of farm work or manage the farm, their farms are equally efficient as farms managed by men.     

Elected leaders and collective land: Farmers’ evaluation of village leaders’ performance in rural China

Previous studies on village elections have focused on the election process, but few have examined post-election outcomes related to local land management systems. Land is the most important resource in Chinese villages, but land management and reallocation are the chief responsibility for elected village leaders. Previous studies show that villager attitudes toward the “fairness” of land reallocations and the type of village elections vary across villages. Some villages have an open election/nomination process while other villages have “closed” or unfair elections. We found that openly elected leaders are more accountable to villagers and that their land management decisions do reflect villager preferences for “fair” land reallocation. Our findings are based on a 2000–2001 survey of 34 villages in rural Shaanxi province. Rozelle is also a member of the Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics. We acknowledge the finical support of the Fulbright Fellowship and the University of California, Pacific Rim Research Fellowship. We want to thank the three anonymous reviews as well as Kevin O’Brien and Li Lianjiang for their comments and suggestions. In addition, we want to thank our friends and colleagues at Northwest University, Xian for all their help, collaboration and support. This paper was first presented in Chinese at the “Contemporary Rural Chinese Social Life” conference held at Hong Kong Polytechnic University November 21^st and 22^nd 2002.     

Is it Better to be a Boy? A Disaggregated Outlay Equivalent Analysis of Gender Bias in Papua New Guinea

The demographic evidence of gender bias in many countries has provided an impetus for finding ways to study the status of women in developing countries. Because of the lack of accurate intra-household data, Deaton [1989 Deaton, A. 1989. Looking for Boy–Girl Discrimination in Household Expenditure Data. World Bank Economic Review, Vol.3, No.1: pp.1–15 [Google Scholar]] introduced a method for using household expenditure data to infer discrimination in the allocation of goods between boys and girls. Few studies of discrimination using the method, however, have detected bias even though alternative indicators suggest it is a serious problem. In this paper, we study the case of Papua New Guinea, a country in which there are many indicators of severe gender bias. Discrimination in the allocation of goods between boys and girls within households in Papua New Guinea is examined using Deaton's outlay-equivalent ratio method. Adding a boy to the household reduces expenditure on adult goods by as much as would a nine-tenths reduction in total outlay per member, but girls have no effect on adult goods expenditure. The hypothesis of Haddad and Reardon [1993 Haddad, L and Reardon, T. 1993. Gender Bias in the Allocation of Resource within Households in Burkina Faso: a Disaggregated Outlay Equivalent Analysis. Journal of Development Studies, Vol.29, No.2: pp.260–76 [Google Scholar]] that gender bias is inversely related to the importance of female labour in agricultural production is not supported. Sensitivity analysis shows that bias in rural areas occurs equally regardless of the age of the household head, while bias against girls may be less in regions of the country that have ethnic groups which practice matrilineal descent.     

Improving the Health and Education of Elementary Schoolchildren in Rural China: Iron Supplementation Versus Nutritional Training for Parents

Abstract

We report on the results of a randomised controlled trial conducted among over 2,000 children in 60 elementary schools in rural Shaanxi Province, North-west China. We find that providing children with daily iron supplements for six months improved children’s haemoglobin levels and standardised maths scores. In comparison, educating parents about nutrition and anaemia in a special parents meeting produced a modest impact on children’s haemoglobin levels. We also find heterogeneous intervention effects by children’s gender, anaemia status and boarding status. Overall, iron supplementation is more effective. However, given its low cost and simple implementation, parental education should still be considered.     

Effect of Parental Migration on the Academic Performance of Left Behind Children in North Western China

China’s rapid urbanisation has induced large numbers of rural residents to migrate from their homes in the countryside to urban areas in search of higher wages. As a consequence, it is estimated that more than 60 million children in rural China are left behind and live with relatives, typically their paternal grandparents. These children are called Left Behind Children (LBCs). There are concerns about the potential negative effects of parental migration on the academic performance of the LBCs that could be due to the absence of parental care. However, it might also be that when a child’s parents work away from home, their remittances can increase the household’s income and provide more resources and that this can lead to better academic performance. Hence, the net impact of out-migration on the academic performance of LBCs is unclear. This paper examines changes in academic performance before and after the parents of students out-migrate. We draw on a panel dataset collected by the authors of more than 13,000 students at 130 rural primary schools in ethnic minority areas of rural China. Using difference-in-differences and propensity score matching approaches, our results indicate that parental migration has significant, positive impacts on the academic performance of LBCs (which we measure using standardised English test scores). Heterogeneous analysis using our data demonstrates that the positive impact on LBCs is greater for poorer performing students.