@article{VanHoyweghen:272323,
      recid = {272323},
      author = {Van Hoyweghen, Kaat and Van Den Broek, Goedele and  Maertens, Miet},
      title = {Understanding the importance of wage employment for rural  development: Evidence from Senegal},
      address = {2018-04-30},
      number = {1067-2018-3228},
      month = {Apr},
      year = {2018},
      abstract = {The literature on the rural non-farm economy and non-farm  employment often neglects agricultural wage employment.  This neglect is rooted in the idea that such employment  cannot significantly contribute to household welfare and  rural development because it is a low-return and insecure  type of employment. In this paper we specifically focus on  off-farm wage employment, disentangle different employment  sectors, and estimate the impact on household welfare. We  use two-round panel data from Senegal, and fixed effects  regressions and differencing techniques. We use static as  well as intertemporal measures of welfare. We find that  entry into wage employment increases per capita income with  140%, smoothens income significantly, reduces the  likelihood to be poor with 34% points and the likelihood to  become or remain poor with 16%. Despite substantially lower  wages for casual and agricultural employment, we find  substantial income-enhancing and poverty-reducing effects  of such employment. Casual employment is found to at first  smooth incomes and to then boost incomes either through  upward employment mobility to higher-return jobs or through  relaxing investment constraints and increased income from  self-employment. We conclude that jobs are important for  rural development as they both smooth and boost rural  incomes; that the agricultural sector can be an important  source of jobs; and that casual jobs can be an important  source of upward income mobility. The paper corroborates  claims on the importance of the rural non-farm economy but  refutes the idea of casual or agricultural employment not  contributing to household welfare and rural development.  This calls for a reconsideration of the definition of the  rural non-farm economy to include agricultural wage  employment as a full component.},
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/272323},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.272323},
}