This paper assesses the potential impact of wage work generated by a Jatropha plantation on household income and poverty alleviation using socio-economic characteristics of rural Malagasy households. We analyse data from 336 randomly selected households from three villages in the vicinity of a Jatropha plantation in central Madagascar. To overcome the problem of selection bias we apply a propensity score matching method to assess the effect of offering labour to the Jatropha plantation on household income. The findings show that households working for the Jatropha plantation have on average higher incomes per person compared to control group households. These differences are more distinct among poor households.