The paper examines effects of agricultural extension on crop yields in Kenya controlling for other determinants of yields, notably the schooling of farmers and agro-ecological characteristics of arable land. The data we use were collected by the Government of Kenya in 1982 and 1990, but the estimation results reported in the paper are based primarily on the 1982 data set. The sample used for es...

A substantial proportion of contemporary migration flows to the UK are made by nationals from countries which have recently joined the EU. The nature of A8 migration during the recession is examined in this paper, mainly using data from the Worker Registration Scheme. The recession has seen a decline in new A8 migrants entering the UK labour market, but the decline has been sectorally uneven, w...

This paper uses aggregate-level data, as well as case-studies, to trace out the evolution of some key structural features of the Indian economy, relating both to the agricultural and the informal industrial sector. These aggregate trends are used to infer: (a) the dominant relations of production under which the vast majority of the Indian working people labour, and (b) the predominant ways in ...

This paper uses aggregate-level data, as well as case-studies, to trace the evolution of some key structural features of the Indian economy, relating both to the agricultural and the informal industrial sector. These aggregate trends are used to infer: (a) the dominant relations of production under which the vast majority of the Indian working people labour, and (b) the predominant ways in whic...

Using 2000-04 panel data this study analyses the pathways rural households followed out of poverty in two lagging provinces of China, Inner Mongolia and Gansu. Rising labour productivity in agriculture has been key, and still holds much promise. Labour mobility has also been important in Gansu. So far, rural diversification has not proven to contribute much to poverty reduction. Income transfer...

This paper explores the emerging labour regimes and consequences for agricultural commercialisation across multiple land-use types in post land reform Zimbabwe. The livelihoods of farmworkers, including those still resident former compounds, are explored. examines patterns employment, access, crop farming, asset ownership off-farm activities, highlighting diversification livelihoods. old patter...

The Industrial Revolution in England was characterised by early and rapid labour release from agriculture to industry. This was facilitated by rising levels of labour productivity in agriculture which permitted labour to be released without excessive upward pressure on food prices. New technology played a central role in raising agricultural productivity but the importance of particular innovat...

Information asymmetry has traditionally constrained smallholder farmers' access to markets. Past studies indicate that it inhibits adoption of modern technologies that have the capacity to enhance productivity of smallholder farms. Hence, farm productivity and agricultural transformation has been stifled, leaving smallholder famers in grinding poverty. Improved smallholder farmers' access to ma...

This paper highlights the link between deforestation and credit instability in Latin American countries which exhibit strong deforestation rates as well as macroeconomic instability that is often rooted in the alternating episodes of credit booms and crunches. Pieces of explanation establishing a causal link between credit instability and deforestation driven by agricultural expansion are put f...