Rural Labor Research Articles

Peer Migration in China

AbstractWith over 290 million rural labourers transitioning to urban areas in 2019, China is experiencing an unparalleled scale of internal migration, the largest in human history. Employing instrumental variables (IVs) gleaned from the 2006 China Agricultural Census (CAC), we find that a 10 percentage point increase in the migration rate among co‐villagers amplifies an individual's probability of migrating by 7.13 percentage points. Influencing factors such as information dissemination at the origin and cost efficiencies at the destination likely contribute to the observed clustering of migration by age, destination and industrial sector. Intriguingly, migration seems to exert a negligible influence on the agricultural productivity of those who remain, which may be due to substantial labour redundancy at the point of origin and potentially higher productivity among migrants.

The impact of information communication technology adoption on rural labourers’ off-farm employment: an analysis based on China family panel studies

ABSTRACTRural family income growth in China depends significantly on off-farm employment. Using data from the China Family Panel Studies, this research examines the influence of information and communication technology (ICT) on off-farm employment of rural workers and the underlying mechanism. We find that ICT has a positive impact on promoting off-farm employment among rural workers. Furthermore, the analysis suggests that ICT affects off-farm employment of rural workers by enhancing their risk preferences. Specifically, rural workers with higher risk preferences are more likely to engage in off-farm employment. In addition, the positive impact of ICT on off-farm employment is more pronounced among rural workers with stronger learning abilities, active learning habits, and higher learning frequency and social frequency of Internet use. This study provides valuable insights on how to improve off-farm employment opportunities for rural workers, thereby reducing the income gap between urban and rural areas.

Do natural disaster affect rural labor migration? Evidence from the Wenchuan earthquake in China

A stable labor supply is pivotal for the economic development of rural areas. However, the response of the rural workforce in developing countries to the natural disasters has received limited attention. This paper examines the causal relationship between severe earthquake shock and rural labor migration, utilizing a unique micro-panel dataset from Sichuan province in China. Using a difference-in-differences model, we find that the earthquake significantly increases rural labor migration, and this effect is primarily manifested in the medium to long term after the disaster. Rural laborers mainly migrated to work within the county, primarily in the construction and manufacturing sector. Furthermore, the majority of these migrating workers are male. Individuals from households with minimal agricultural ties and limited social networks are more vulnerable to the disaster. To mitigate the loss of rural labor due to natural disasters, we provide several recommendations at the end of the paper. These include enhancing the adaptive and coping capacities of farmers, offering them stable demand within the industrial chain, agricultural operational subsidies, and policy-based insurance, as well as promoting the development of cooperative economic organizations in villages.

Examining the impact of farm management practices on wheat production: Does agricultural investment matter?

Over the years, the allocation of public funds toward agriculture has consistently played a pivotal role in facilitating the modernization and commercialization of the agricultural industry. Similarly, the integration of technological breakthroughs plays a pivotal role in guaranteeing the sustainability of food production, not solely for the present populace but also for subsequent generations. The present study examines the impact of public investment in agriculture and farm management practices, specifically focusing on cultivated area, fertilizer use, pesticide application, total agricultural machinery, and rural labour force on wheat production in nine provinces of China. The study encompasses the period from 1995 to 2020. This study employs advanced econometric techniques, such as second-generation unit root procedures (CADF and CIPS) and the Westerlund cointegration method, to investigate the stationarity properties and cointegration of the variables. The findings derived from the AMG and CCEMG methods indicate that public investment plays a statistically significant influence on wheat production. In the context of production-related variables, long-term wheat production is statistically and substantially influenced by the total area under cultivation, fertilizer use, and pesticide application. Besides these results, the Dumitrescu and Hurlin causality test reveals a unidirectional causality from agricultural machinery power consumption to wheat production. Furthermore, bidirectional causality exists between public investment, cultivated area, fertilizer use, labour, and wheat production. These results provide vital implications and valuable insights for policymakers in China, which may furnish novel policymaking options for sustainable food production through strategic investments in research and development, irrigation systems, and technological advancements.

Natural-resources-seeking FDI and employment opportunities in developing countries: a temporal perspective

PurposeThis study aims to analyze the short-, medium- and long-term impacts of natural-resources-seeking foreign direct investment (FDI) in the form of foreign multinational enterprise (MNE) land acquisitions on agricultural labor productivity in developing countries. The authors analyze if these land acquisitions disrupt fair and decent rural labor productivity or if the investments provide opportunities for improvement and growth. The influence of different country characteristics, such as economic development levels and governmental protection for the rural population, are acknowledged.Design/methodology/approachThe study analyzes 570 land acquisitions across 90 countries between 2000 and 2015 via a generalized least squares regression. It distinguishes short- and long-term implications and the moderating role of a country’s economic development level and government effectiveness in implementing government protection.FindingsThe results suggest that natural resource-seeking FDI harms agricultural labor productivity in the short term. However, this impact turns positive in the long term as labor markets adjust to the initial disruptions that result from land acquisitions. A country’s economic development level mitigates the negative short-term impacts, indicating the possibility of finding alternative job opportunities in economically stronger countries. Government effectiveness does have no influence, presumably as the rural population in which the investment is partaking is in many developing countries, not the focus of governmental protectionism.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings provide interesting insights into the impact of MNEs on developing countries and particularly their rural areas that are heavily dependent on natural resources. The authors identify implications on employment opportunities in the agricultural sector in these countries, which are negative in the short term but turn positive in the long term.Practical implicationsMoreover, the findings also have utility for policymakers. The sale of land to foreign MNEs is not a passive process – indeed, developing country governments have an active hand in constructing purchase contracts. Local governments could organize multistakeholder partnerships between MNEs, domestic businesses and communities to promote cooperation for access to technology and innovation and capacity-building to support employment opportunities.Social implicationsThe authors urge MNE managers to establish new partnerships to ease transitions and mitigate the negative impacts of land acquisitions on agricultural employment opportunities in the short term. These partnerships could emphasize worker retraining and skills upgrading for MNE-owned land, developing new financing schemes and sharing of technology and market opportunities for surrounding small-holder farmers (World Bank, 2018). MNE managers could also adopt wildlife-friendly farming and agroecological intensification practices to mitigate the negative impacts on local ecosystems and biodiversity (Tscharntke et al., 2012).Originality/valueThe authors contribute to the debate on the positive and negative impact of FDI on developing countries, particularly considering temporality and the rural environment in which the FDI is partaking.

Discussion on the Current Situation and Future Development of Unmanned Smart Farmland

At present, unmanned smart farmland in China is in the early stage of demonstration and promotion, and technological research mainly focuses on single machine intelligent control technologies such as autonomous driving and precision operation. However, related technologies such as multi machine collaboration, host machine and machine operation collaboration, as well as collaboration between agricultural production scenarios and autonomous agricultural machine operation, are insufficient. Building unmanned smart farmland is an important way to alleviate the shortage of rural labor and promote the modernization of agriculture and rural areas. It provides precise planting, visual management, and intelligent decision-making for agricultural production, and also allows agriculture and rural areas to share the achievements of technological development in the era.

Can rural human capital inputs enhance agricultural total factor productivity? - Based on the dualistic economic structure perspective

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Human factor inputs are key to promoting agricultural modernisation. Traditional economic theory suggests that improving human capital is the key to boosting agricultural productivity, but can this conclusion hold in China's dualistic economic structure? We use Chinese provincial panel data from 2000-2017 to examine the impact of rural human capital inputs on agricultural total factor productivity. We find that, on the whole, rural human capital inputs have a negative effect on agricultural total factor productivity, and that there is a "rural human capital trap". Mechanism analysis reveals that rural human capital inputs, on the one hand, cause labour loss and reduce the quality of agricultural workers, while on the other hand, they may promote the application of mechanization, which has both positive and negative effects on agricultural total factor productivity. Heterogeneity analysis finds that this negative effect is more pronounced in the central region of China because of the serious loss of rural labour. This study provides new policy insights for further improving the structure of rural education inputs and promoting human capital accumulation in agriculture.</span></p>

The effect and mechanism of farmland transfer on the multidimensional relative poverty of rural women

Introduction: Over the past 40 years of reform and opening up, China has made significant progress in poverty reduction in rural areas. China’s land system is different from that of other countries in the world because of its special national conditions and the influence of small farmers in large countries. The rural female labor force is the key force to reduce rural poverty and realize rural revitalization.Methods: This paper attempts to construct a multidimensional relative poverty measurement index system for rural women and estimates the multidimensional relative poverty of the rural female labor force using the data of China Family Panel Studies in 2018. This paper also uses propensity score matching to estimate the correlation between rural land transfer and rural female poverty.Results and discussion: Based on the aforementioned conclusions, this paper puts forward relevant policy suggestions from two aspects: encouraging the rational and effective transfer of agricultural land and breaking the inherent gender order 1) to encourage the rational and effective circulation of agricultural land, so as to reduce the degree of fragmentation and promote the appropriate scale management of contiguous plots; 2) to break the inherent gender order, so as to achieve the improvement of women’s economic income, and the alleviation of multidimensional relative poverty, so as to alleviate the poverty of families.

Labor mobility and clean energy use: Evidence from rural households in China

One of the critical challenges facing China is environmental pollution caused by insufficient use of clean energy. This paper empirically investigates the impact of rural labor mobility on household clean energy use using data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS). The results indicate that labor mobility significantly promotes the adoption of clean energy by rural households, with income effects and information channel effects serving as the underlying mechanisms. The study also finds that health risks, as an important consideration for household energy use choices, enhance this positive effect. Furthermore, heterogeneity analysis reveals that labor mobility has a greater impact on households with lower levels of education, lack of social security, and those located in central and western regions. Therefore, the government should take measures to increase the income of the rural migrant population and continuously widen the information channels for rural households to promote clean energy use. The findings of this study provide a new perspective and evidence for understanding household energy use behavior in China, offering valuable insights for policymakers aiming to expand the use of clean energy.

Acute kidney injury in rural workers: An environmental-stress nephropathy

Introduction: Mesoamerican nephropathy is a tubule-interstitial nephropathy whose etiology is still unknown. However, clinical cases like Mesoamerican nephropathy have been described in other geographically distant and ethnically diverse regions. Still, they all have a common factor: the intensity of heat and rural physical labor. Objective: To study whether this entity could occur among rural workers in a non-Mesoamerican region with similar climatic and working conditions, in the Colombian Caribbean countryside, and to consider how much repetitive dehydration could weigh in its pathogenesis. Methodology: An observational study was carried out, based on field work in a farm in Sitio Nuevo (Colombia) with 28 rural worker volunteers (rice fields), who were measured for weight, blood pressure, and blood and urine samples to measure electrolytes and osmolarity, at 2 times of the day (morning and evening). Results: Of the 28 young men workers evaluated, 5 (18%) presented a significant increase in serum creatinine during the day (0.8±0.15 vs 1.2±0.17, p<0.001). The volume of water ingested by the workers was highly variable (2,861 ± 1,591 cc). There was a significant increase in serum sodium (p?0.001), and urinary osmolarity (p=0.01) values between morning and afternoon values in these 5 patients. Conclusions: Eighteen percent (18%) of the workers evaluated developed parameters compatible with acute kidney injury and dehydration during the workday in the Colombian Caribbean countryside.

The long‐run evolution of global real wages

AbstractThis article reviews the literature on comparative real wages in history that has emerged over the past two decades. Research has shown that unskilled men's real wages were higher in England and the Low Countries than in other parts of Europe and Asia from about 1720. Yet 18th‐ and 19th‐century real wages were even higher in the northern American colonies than they were in the European leaders, while those in Latin America were somewhere in the middle of the global wage ladder. This comparative picture is drawn on the basis of unskilled male day wages and various recent contributions focused on specific countries and time periods noting the variation in wage levels and trends for different groups of workers across urban and rural areas and labor contracts, varying days of labor per year, and the crucial and changing contributions of other family members. The latest research also highlights new ways to compute comparative cost‐of‐living indices. Building new datasets to take these issues into account in a new global comparative picture of long‐run real wages is a major area for future research.

The impact of digital ability on employment adequacy in rural China

ABSTRACT Digital ability can increase job-searching efficiency of labour. However, the impact of digital ability on employment adequacy in rural households in China has not received sufficient attention. Using survey data from 1,953 rural households in China, this study analyzes labour participation and working time as indicators of employment adequacy. Item response theory was used to construct digital ability indicators, while conditional mixed process, IV-Probit, and IV-Tobit models were used for empirical estimation. After controlling for endogeneity, the results show that: 1) digital ability has a positive impact on labour participation rate and total working time; 2) digital ability has a positive effect on non-agricultural participation and working time, but negative effect on agricultural participation and production time; 3) the promotion effect of digital ability on working time is more obvious in households with high dependency ratio and low income; 4) both overtime work and underemployment co-exist among rural households. These results provide evidence that digital ability promotes employment adequacy and off-farm transfer of rural labour. Policymakers should consider improving the digital ability of rural households, especially those with high dependency burdens and low incomes. An in-depth discussion of digital ability should be undertaken in further research.

Changing Employment Patterns: An Analysis of Rural Labour Force in Punjab

The story of Punjab’s economic development witnessed an asymmetrical shift in the structure of output and employment due to the intensive capitalistic model of production in agriculture. The present study, based on National Sample Survey Office data, examines the patterns of employment and output in rural economy of Punjab during the pre-reform and post-reform period. Rural Punjab witnessed fall of work participation rate and phenomenon of ‘defeminisation’ of the labour force in agriculture during the post-reform period. There is a paradigm shift as the share of non-agriculture employment increased to 59.3% as per Periodic Labour Force Survey 2018; consequently, the non-agriculture sector becomes a major driving force in the state economy. An increase in employment elasticity among all sectors (except construction sector) during the post-reform period is a good sign. But a substantial decline in employment elasticity for all the sectors (except the construction sector) of Punjab is a disquieting phenomenon during the study period. Amidst the agrarian crisis, the rural non-farm sector can emerge as a silver lining, but evangelists of market economy disregarded the rural non-farm sector. Hence, the state should abdicate its neoliberal policies and adopt post-Washington consensus for the development of the rural non-farm sector within a given mode of production. JEL Codes: E24, J16, J43, J46, O11

The impact of adult children's support on the psychological health of rural older adult people in China.

Family old-age care is dominant in Chinese rural society, and children's support is an important force in family old-age care. However, the migration of a large number of young and middle-aged rural laborers has undermined the traditional arrangements for old-age care in rural areas and affected the psychological health of the older adult. 2014 China Longitudinal Aging Social Survey targets Chinese citizens aged 60 or older and covers 28 provinces in mainland China. In this paper, the database of the CLASS was selected for empirical analysis to explore the impact of children's support on the depression level and loneliness of rural older adults through multiple linear regression, and was divided into two groups according to children's migration to analyze heterogeneity. Children's financial support facilitates the maintenance of mental health among rural older adults. Children's support promotes mental health among rural older adults, but this association does not exist among older adults without children's migration. Individual characteristics of older people have a greater impact on mental health. Our study firstly compares the differences of children's migration status between children's support and mental health among the older adult in rural China. In order to improve the mental health of the older adult, it is necessary to create a favorable atmosphere of love and respect for the older adult, improve the social security system in rural areas, and give full play to the strengths of the social forces, so as to ensure that the older adult have a sense of worthiness and enjoyment in their old age.

Foreign direct investment, off-farm employment and rural labour income: evidence from China

ABSTRACT The study is to investigate how foreign direct investment (FDI) affects China’s off-farm employment and per capita income of rural labourers and compare the effects in different regions. Based on panel data from 1997 to 2018 in 27 provinces and analysing the results of the simultaneous equations and dynamic generalized moment models with economic distances as extra instrumental variables, the study finds that FDI on average has played a significantly positive role in Chinese off-farm employment and per capita income of rural labourers. However, FDI has a much bigger impact on off-farm employment and per capita income of rural labourers in the coastal region than that in the inland region. In addition, we observe a positive off-farm employment and income effect of FDI with rural labour’s education level playing a significantly positive moderating role. The impact mechanism test also shows that FDI’s impact on off-farm employment and income is realized by stimulating the development of non-agricultural industries and directly creating jobs. These adjustments make a significant contribution to poverty reduction in rural China. China should further adjust the structure of FDI and optimize the regional distribution of foreign investment for promoting the overall transformation in rural China.

Mapping crop-specific emission factors highlights hotspots of ammonia mitigation in China

Mapping gridded emission factors (EFs) of crops is vital for estimating ammonia (NH3) emissions in China using the bottom-up methods. However, there is still a lack of high-resolution gridded EFs of NH3 by crops in China, which are affected by climate, soil, and human management. Here, we established a data-driven approach for mapping crop-specific EFs of NH3 in China based on ground-based data and multiple geospatial data. We found that rice exhibited the highest EFs at 13.35 %, followed by wheat at 5.50 %, and maize at 5.15 %. This underscores the significance of utilizing EFs specific to each crop for predicting NH3 emission estimations. Furthermore, our results reveal substantial spatial variations in NH3 EFs across China, with notably higher values observed in South China for rice and elevated EFs in North China for wheat and maize. According to our model, the deep fertilization method emerges as the most effective method for reducing NH3 emissions, offering a remarkable 64 % reduction. Ongoing urbanization in China will lead to a rapid decline in the rural labor force in the coming years, which requires agricultural mechanization with less labor input. This shift in turn could support the implementation of deep fertilization techniques and reduce NH3 emissions by half in 2050. Our findings offer valuable insights for shaping the future trajectory of Chinese agriculture in overcoming agricultural NH3 loss.

Academic Discourses on Causes of and Solutions to Poverty in India

This paper analyses academic discourses about factors that cause/perpetuate or eliminate poverty. It finds that the academic debates on the subject have been dominated by economists and have concentrated mainly on economic backwardness and/or unequal distribution of productive assets as the major causes of poverty in India. The consensus that emerges from these suggests that growth is important but other factors such as the growth of employment and real wage rates are equally important since the majority of the poor in India are rural labour households with marginal or no landholdings. The alternative discourse by political scientists highlights the importance of political factors and unequal distribution of power and resources in causing poverty and therefore suggests land reforms, empowerment, the need for inclusive policies/politics and peoples’ movement as some of the solutions. Sociological studies of poverty bring out the role of social institutions such as the caste system (a system of institutionalized inequality) and patriarchy in bringing a disproportionate burden of poverty on certain disadvantaged sections of society such as the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, women, etc. State level studies highlight the importance of ‘Quality of Governance’ while village level studies provide useful insights based on the people’s experience of falling in and out of poverty. The paper thus finds that the understanding of causes of poverty is affected by – (a) Academic Disciplines of the researchers; (b) Ideology of the researchers and (c) the level of enquiry, i.e. national, state, district or village.

Empowerment and access to opportunities in South Africa: can gender equality be achieved?

The purpose of this paper is to examine the unequal and inadequate access to opportunities by both men and women in South Africa, as well as the progress made in achieving gender equality and promoting women's empowerment, which are embedded in the Millennium Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals, respectively. The paper is virtuously theoretical and relies upon literature to present its arguments, soliciting information from published journals, reports, and previous studies. Access is primarily a gendered phenomenon worldwide, pertaining to the subsets of, inter alia, access to information, rights, land, money, education, skills, political participation, and opinion. Gender equity and equality are high on the developmental agenda of women in almost every country. South Africa, being part of international treaties and conventions on gender equity, is obliged to advance the empowerment of women and eliminate all forms of gender discrimination. The development of women, their access to essential resources, and their participation in important positions of decision-making are still challenges in most countries. It is commonly known that everywhere in the world, women face constraints that limit their capacity to contribute to production, well-being, decision-making, growth, and most importantly, empowerment, which in turn promotes independence. Women face discrimination in access to productive resources such as land; they face wage inequality in rural labor markets; and they are also more likely to work part-time, seasonal, and/or low-paying jobs when engaged in wage employment. Despite the Domestic Violence Act 116 of 1998 and the inauguration of the Annual 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children by the South African government, which are aimed at fighting the perpetual inequalities and abuse of women and children, gender inequality, women's disempowerment, and unequal access to opportunities are still predominant in the country.

The Status of Left-behind Children in Rural Areas under the Background of Parents Migration

The group of left-behind children in China has long been characterized by large-scale and numerous challenges, among which the education of left-behind children has been the center of attention and a contentious topic. In China, there were 170 million rural migrant laborers by 2022. Rural migration may have a significant positive influence on the families, communities, and work force of the migrants as well as on themselves personally. It is important to investigate how these massive rural migratory workers affect the family unit, particularly their children. The object of this paper is the left-behind children in rural areas under the background of parents migration. There are two main research directions: the first is the behavioral problems of left-behind children in rural areas under the background of parents migration and the causes and countermeasures of the behavioral problems; the second is the education status of left-behind children in rural areas under the background of parents migration. Children whose parents migrated had a considerably greater overall frequency of behavior problem than children who were not left behind. When one parent migrated, the likelihood of problem behavior in the children was much higher when the mother migrated than when the father migrated. Childrens academic performance is significantly influenced by aspects related to education, including family education spending, involvement in education, and supervision in school.

Employment of Land-Expropriated Farmers: The Effects of Land Expropriation and Gender Difference

The employment inequality between males and females in the context of land expropriation is not conducive for land-expropriated farmers to earn a sustainable livelihood. In this study, based on the data of two waves of household surveys, the “Chinese Family Panel Study” in 2016 and 2018, the PSM-DID method is used to test the effects of land expropriation on the employment behavior of the rural labor force, and the heterogeneous results of men’s and women’s employment behaviors are analyzed. The following conclusions are drawn. Land expropriation significantly reduces the employment probability of the labor force, encouraging the rural labor force to withdraw from the labor market voluntarily; land expropriation significantly shortens the employment distance of the labor force overall, promoting the urbanization of the rural labor force in the vicinity; land expropriation has a greater impact on the unemployment of the female labor force than that of the male labor force, and it increases the employment distance of males and reduces that of females, promoting the return of females’ labor to the family. The policy significance of this study is to attach importance to the long-term sustainable livelihoods of rural households and the employment equality of males and females in urbanization. Findings suggest family–friendly compensation for land expropriation should be formulated, rural construction land should be allowed to enter the market instead of being expropriated, and cooperation between county and developed regions should be encouraged for the creation of more jobs.