Income-generating Strategies Research Articles

Family Economic Strategies in Nineteenth-and Early Twentieth-Century Indianapolis

Through cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of two samples of families living in Indianapolis from 1860 to 1880 and from 1900 to 1920, I test several hypotheses on how families adjusted their use of three income-generating strategies (wives' employment, children's employment, and taking in boarders) to their social, economic and demographic milieu as well as to their changing needs and opportunities as they moved through the family life cycle. The bulk of families in both periods used at least one of these strategies at some point, relying on strategies of wives early in the life cycle and/or strategies of children later. Relative to families in the post-1860 period, families after the turn of the century relied more on the paid work of wives and daughters and less on boarding and sons' employment as sources of income.

The Impact of Non-Traditional Export Agriculture on Income and Food Availability in Guatemala: An Intra-Household Perspective

This paper assesses the impact of non-traditional agriculture exports (NTAE) in highland Guatemala on the level and distribution of household income, and the financing and purchase of food items. Heckman's two-step procedure was used to control for self-selection of NTAE producers and potential correlation of preferences. Farmers with greater extension of land, as well as younger Catholic farmers with higher-quality land, are most likely to adopt the new crops (broccoli, snow peas (mange-tout!), and NTAE crops are highly profitable for those who adopt them. Despite the widespread use of female labour in the production of NTAE crops, the extent of adoption is not negatively associated with women's ability to generate independent income. Land devoted to the new crops also exhibits a strong positive relationship with subsistence production of corn and beans. Weak evidence supports the hypothesis that distinct intra-household income transfer patterns obtained in NTAE crop-adopting households compared with non-adopting households: in the former, the level of the weekly food allowance provided to women by their husbands is less responsive to changes in both household and female income, making women's earnings a more important overall determinant of food expenditure. A simulation exercise showed that households that have not adopted new crops would use increases in income to augment food expenditures to a much greater extent than adopting households. Within adopting households, the impact of increases in women's income on food expenditures is nearly double that of increases in men's income. Women's flexibility with regard to the allocation of their labour time and income plays an important role in the relative success of non-traditional agriculture as a means of improving household food availability. Improving the food consumption of poor households is often an important implicit or explicit goal of income-generating strategies such as the promotion of non-traditional agricultural export (NTAE) crops. However, a fair amount of controversy surrounds the strength of the relationship between increases in household income and greater access to and intake of nutritious foods. This is particularly the case when those increases in income are based on the displacement of subsistence crops and/or are biased in flavour of men, who may have less propensity than women to spend marginal income gains on food for the family. The nutritional impact of NTAE in highland Guatemala was assessed in a conceptual framework that accounts for the mediating influences of changes in household income, subsistence food production, and alterations in intra-household resource transfers. The data were drawn from a survey of over 300 rural households in five central highland communities between October 1990 and August 1991.

Industrial Restructuring and Women's Homework in Appalachia: Lessons from West Virginia

This paper analyzes the relationship between industrial restructuring and women's homework in Appalachia. Since the early 1970s, industrial restructuring in this region has led to substantial job loss in mining and manufacturing industries and increased employment in the service sector. These employment shifts, coupled with Appalachia's long tradition of informal sector activities, make homework a viable income-generating strategy for women. This paper first addresses some of the literature on the geography of gender and industrial restructuring. Second, women's homework is analyzed as an economic strategy in response to industrial restructuring. In the third section, the types and significance of women's homework in West Virginia is discussed in the context of this state's economic history. The final section outlines the implications of this study for regional development in Appalachia and West Virginia in particular.

Income-generating strategies for poor women in Costa Rica: improvement in their social as well as economic status?

Income-generating strategies for poor women in Costa Rica: improvement in their social as well as economic status?

Limited Resource Farmers' Productivity: Some Evidence from Georgia

has been more pronounced in the noncommercial and small commercial farm classes during this period. The decline is drastic even after considering the changes in the definition of a farm used by the Bureau of the Census and the Department of Agriculture. Large farms have shown an almost steady increase in numbers during this period (Carr). Even with the drastic decline in the number of small farms, they still account for a large proportion of the nation's total farms. According to the 1982 Census of Agriculture, about 76% of the nation's farms are small. The South, one of the regions with the largest number of small farms, has in excess of one million farms, and over 80% of these farms are defined as small. Georgia has approximately 49,627 farms; at least 67% of its total are small farms (Brown). Limited resource farmer (LRF) is a term used to describe the traditional small, part-time farmer throughout the United States. The term limited resource farmer apparently took its origin from the financial assistance program developed by the Farm Home Administration and approved by Congress in 1978 via the Agricultural Credit Act. However, the concept of limited resource farmer pertains to the lack of adequate inputs for the normal operation of the farm business. Additionally, the term limited resource farmer is sometimes used interchangeably with low-equity fa m, low-income farmer, small-scale farme , marginal farm, and small farm (Carlin and Crecink, Chidebelu, Tweeten). Previous studies by Saupe, Chidebelu, Tweeten (1982), Faust, Beauford, Williams, and Yeboah and Strickland address production, financing, and structure of agricultural issues applicable to the small farm issue. Recently, more concern has been directed to the survival issues of the limit d resource farmer, especially as it relates to structural changes that are occurring. Beauford alluded to the fact that a major difference exists between the income-generating strategies, patterns of household income, racial make-up, and geographic location of small farms compared to that of larger farmers. She concluded that, while differences exist between farm-income-dependent and nonfarm-income-dependent households, their economic well-being remains relatively the same. Limited resource farmers have been, and continue to be, important in terms of their numbers and the resources that they control. There are indications that beliefs about small farms could