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Labor calendars and rural poverty: A case study for Malawi

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  • de Janvry, Alain
  • Duquennois, Claire
  • Sadoulet, Elisabeth

Abstract

The persistence of rural poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa is a major challenge for meeting the Sustainable Development Goal on poverty eradication. Using detailed data for Malawi, we investigate the association between seasonality in labor calendars and low consumption. We find that (1) seasonality in rural labor calendars runs deep, accounting for 2/3 of total rural underemployment, (2) we do not observe activities with labor requirements that run clearly counter-cyclical to the main agricultural season, (3) gaps in rural–urban annual consumption are strongly associated with differences in time worked due to seasonality differentials. The implication is that reducing rural seasonality in labor calendars should be a major objective in seeking to increase rural consumption levels. Methodologically, we show that labor calendars can be constructed from standard annual rural household survey data with information on labor use by crop and task.

Suggested Citation

  • de Janvry, Alain & Duquennois, Claire & Sadoulet, Elisabeth, 2022. "Labor calendars and rural poverty: A case study for Malawi," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jfpoli:v:109:y:2022:i:c:s0306919222000367
    DOI: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2022.102255
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