Married to rubber? Evidence from the expansion of natural rubber in Southwest China

Abstract

The environmental and economic effects of rubber expansion in southeast Asia have been widely explored, while the possible social influence on local community is rarely investigated. This paper investigates the impacts of rubber cultivation by women's natal households on women's decisions about matrilocal residence after marriage in an ethnic-minority region of Southwest China from the perspectives of family labor and resource endowment. The results suggest that economic factors extend beyond Dai women's traditional customs to determine a woman's decision to live in a matrilocal residence. When labor constraints and resource heterogeneity are present, higher household labor demand and the possession of more location-specific resources such as rubber plantations may increase the likelihood of female family members living in a matrilocal residence after marriage. The findings complement the literature on both the social impacts of agroforestry expansion and the marriage migration in a community with unequally distributed, location-specific resources.