IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fao/wpaper/0602.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Household Income Structure and Determinants in Rural Egypt

Author

Listed:
  • André Croppenstedt

    (Agricultural and Development Economics Division, Food and Agriculture Organization)

Abstract

Egypt is on track to achieve its long-term goal of reducing the poverty rate to 6 percent by 2022. Continued progress towards this goal will require rapid employment growth for which agriculture growth, through its impact on demand for goods and services in the rural non-tradable sector will be of fundamental importance. This paper considers which agricultural policies will be most effective at reducing rural poverty in Egypt . Using household survey data from 1997 the study analyzes household income structure and determinants. Results indicate that agricultural policies that help to raise unskilled labor wages and/or increase demand for unskilled labor as well as those that support small animal/bird raising, in particular poultry, are best suited to help the poor. A longer-term strategy must also focus on enhancing formal sector employment through increased access to education for men and in particular women.

Suggested Citation

  • André Croppenstedt, 2006. "Household Income Structure and Determinants in Rural Egypt," Working Papers 06-02, Agricultural and Development Economics Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO - ESA).
  • Handle: RePEc:fao:wpaper:0602
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/008/af840e/af840e00.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Datt, Gaurav & Jolliffe, Dean, 2005. "Poverty in Egypt: Modeling and Policy Simulations," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 53(2), pages 327-346, January.
    2. Reardon, Thomas & Taylor, J. Edward, 1996. "Agroclimatic shock, income inequality, and poverty: Evidence from Burkina Faso," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 901-914, May.
    3. Gaurav Datt & Dean Jolliffe & Manohar Sharma, 2001. "A Profile of Poverty in Egypt," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 13(2), pages 202-237.
    4. Reardon, Thomas, 1997. "Using evidence of household income diversification to inform study of the rural nonfarm labor market in Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 735-747, May.
    5. Janvry, Alain de & Sadoulet, Elisabeth, 2001. "Income Strategies Among Rural Households in Mexico: The Role of Off-farm Activities," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 467-480, March.
    6. Adams, Richard H, Jr, 2002. "Nonfarm Income, Inequality, and Land in Rural Egypt," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 50(2), pages 339-363, January.
    7. De Janvry, Alain & Sadoulet, Elisabeth & Murgai, Rinku, 2002. "Rural development and rural policy," Handbook of Agricultural Economics, in: B. L. Gardner & G. C. Rausser (ed.), Handbook of Agricultural Economics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 31, pages 1593-1658, Elsevier.
    8. Wahba, Jackline, 2000. "Returns to education and regional earnings differentials in Egypt," Discussion Paper Series In Economics And Econometrics 0025, Economics Division, School of Social Sciences, University of Southampton.
    9. Barrett, C. B. & Reardon, T. & Webb, P., 2001. "Nonfarm income diversification and household livelihood strategies in rural Africa: concepts, dynamics, and policy implications," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 315-331, August.
    10. El-Laithy, Heba & Lokshin, Michael & Banerji, Arup, 2003. "Poverty and economic growth in Egypt, 1995-2000," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3068, The World Bank.
    11. John L. Newman & Paul J. Gertler, 1994. "Family Productivity, Labor Supply, and Welfare in a Low Income Country," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 29(4), pages 989-1026.
    12. Wahba, Jackline, 2000. "Returns to education and regional earnings differentials in Egypt," Discussion Paper Series In Economics And Econometrics 25, Economics Division, School of Social Sciences, University of Southampton.
    13. Adams, Richard H., Jr., 1991. "The effects of international remittances on poverty, inequality, and development in rural Egypt:," Research reports 86, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    14. Rose, Elaina, 2001. "Ex ante and ex post labor supply response to risk in a low-income area," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 371-388, April.
    15. Mark R. Rosenzweig, 1980. "Neoclassical Theory and the Optimizing Peasant: An Econometric Analysis of Market Family Labor Supply in a Developing Country," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 94(1), pages 31-55.
    16. Datt, Gaurav & Olmsted, Jennifer, 1998. "Agricultural wages and food prices in Egypt," FCND discussion papers 53, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gamal M. Siam & André Croppenstedt, 2007. "An Assessment of the Impact of Wheat Market Liberalization in Egypt; A Multi-Market Model Approach," Working Papers 07-15, Agricultural and Development Economics Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO - ESA).
    2. Helmy, Imane, 2020. "Livelihood Diversification Strategies: Resisting Vulnerability in Egypt," GLO Discussion Paper Series 441, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    3. Anders Oskar Kjøller‐Hansen & Lena Lindbjerg Sperling, 2020. "Measuring inclusive growth experiences: Five criteria for productive employment," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(4), pages 1413-1429, November.
    4. Anríquez, Gustavo, 2007. "Long-term rural demographic trends," ESA Working Papers 289040, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Agricultural Development Economics Division (ESA).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Francesca Marchetta, 2008. "Migration and non farm activities as income diversification strategies: the case of Northern Ghana," Working Papers - Economics wp2008_16.rdf, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa.
    2. Lay, Jann & M'Mukaria, George Michuki & Omar Mahmoud, Toman, 2007. "Boda-bodas rule: Non-agricultural activities and their inequality implications in Western Kenya," Proceedings of the German Development Economics Conference, Göttingen 2007 20, Verein für Socialpolitik, Research Committee Development Economics.
    3. Helmy, Imane, 2020. "Livelihood Diversification Strategies: Resisting Vulnerability in Egypt," GLO Discussion Paper Series 441, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    4. Paul Nkegbe & Abdelkrim Araar & Benjamin Abu & Yazidu Ustarz & Hamdiyah Alhassan & Edinam Dope Setsoafia & Shamsia Abdul-Wahab, 2018. "Rural Non-Farm Engagement and Agriculture Commercialization in Ghana: Complements or Competitors?," Working Papers PMMA 2018-07, PEP-PMMA.
    5. Gamel Abdul-Nasser Salifu, 2019. "The Political Economy Dynamics of Rural Household Income Diversification: A Review of the International Literature," Research in World Economy, Research in World Economy, Sciedu Press, vol. 10(3), pages 273-290, December.
    6. Dil Bahadur Rahut Chhetri & Pradyot Ranjan Jena & Akhter Ali & Bhagirath Behera & Nar Bahadur Chhetri, 2015. "Rural Nonfarm Employment, Income, and Inequality: Evidence from Bhutan," Asian Development Review, MIT Press, vol. 32(2), pages 65-94, September.
    7. Bagamba, Fredrick & Burger, Kees & Kuyvenhoven, Arie, 2007. "Determinants of smallholder farmer labour allocation decisions in Uganda," 106th Seminar, October 25-27, 2007, Montpellier, France 7920, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    8. Nguyen, Huy, 2014. "The effect of land fragmentation on labor allocation and the economic diversity of farm households: The case of Vietnam," MPRA Paper 57521, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Newman, Constance & Canagarajah, Sudharshan, 2000. "Gender, poverty, and nonfarm employment in Ghana and Uganda," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2367, The World Bank.
    10. Marcel Fafchamps & Agnes R. Quisumbing, 1999. "Human Capital, Productivity, and Labor Allocation in Rural Pakistan," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 34(2), pages 369-406.
    11. Gero Carletto & Katia Covarrubias & Benjamin Davis & Marika Krausova & Kostas Stamoulis & Paul Winters & Alberto Zezza, 2007. "Rural income generating activities in developing countries: re-assessing the evidence," The Electronic Journal of Agricultural and Development Economics, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, vol. 4(1), pages 146-193.
    12. Laszlo, Sonia, 2008. "Education, Labor Supply, and Market Development in Rural Peru," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 2421-2439, November.
    13. Nosier, Shereen & Beram, Reham & Mahrous, Mohamed, 2021. "Household Poverty in Egypt: Poverty Profile, Econometric Modeling and Policy Simulations," SocArXiv d8spt, Center for Open Science.
    14. Asfaw, Solomon & Scognamillo, Antonio & Caprera, Gloria Di & Sitko, Nicholas & Ignaciuk, Adriana, 2019. "Heterogeneous impact of livelihood diversification on household welfare: Cross-country evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 278-295.
    15. Ahituv, Avner & Kimhi, Ayal, 2002. "Off-farm work and capital accumulation decisions of farmers over the life-cycle: the role of heterogeneity and state dependence," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 329-353, August.
    16. Taruvinga, Amon & Mushunje, Abbyssinia, 2012. "Buffer zone income dynamics for the sub-district producer community: Implications for rural off-farm income, income inequality and the development of household agriculture," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 126377, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    17. Sharma, Govinda Prasad & Pandit, Ram & White, Ben & Polyakov, Maksym, 2015. "The Income Diversification Strategies of Smallholder Coffee Producers in Nepal," Working Papers 207693, University of Western Australia, School of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    18. Pascual, Unai & Barbier, Edward B., 2005. "On- And Off-Farm Labor Decisions By Slash-And-Burn Farmers In Yucatan (Mexico)," Environmental Economy and Policy Research Discussion Papers 31926, University of Cambridge, Department of Land Economy.
    19. Jehovaness Aikaeli & Martin Julius Chegere & John Rand, 2023. "Complementarity and substitutability between farm and nonfarm activities: Evidence from agricultural households in Tanzania," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 89-111, February.
    20. Govinda P. Sharma & Ram Pandit & Ben White & Maksym Polyakov, 2020. "The income diversification strategies of smallholders in the hills of Nepal," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 38(6), pages 804-825, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Egypt; household income structure; household income determinants; income distribution; rural sector.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D30 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - General
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fao:wpaper:0602. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Gustavo Anríquez (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/faoooit.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.