IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/iaae18/277177.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Aspirations and Farmers Investment Choices - An Investigation of Aspirations Failure in South Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Shakra, R.

Abstract

Recent literature in development and welfare economics tackles the interaction between aspirations and investment and their role in sustaining poverty. Our paper investigates this relationship by exploring income aspirations of emerging farmers and their investments in agriculture inputs in South Africa. It follows the theoretical approach introduced by Appadurai (2004) and Ray (2006) and employs a simplified version of the empirical model introduced by Janzen et al. (2017). We find no significant evidence of aspirations failure or the inverse-U shaped relationship that is predicted by the theory. Our analysis does not show any effects nor does it predict different hypothesis. We provide possible attributes for these outcomes, mainly on the design of the survey, type of investments, and motives behind engaging in small-scale agribusiness. Acknowledgement : We express our sincere gratitude to the Department of Agriculture Economics at the University of Stellenbosch, the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP), and the great team of enumerators for their dedication, for providing valuable insights and for assisting with the survey in the field.

Suggested Citation

  • Shakra, R., 2018. "Aspirations and Farmers Investment Choices - An Investigation of Aspirations Failure in South Africa," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277177, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:iaae18:277177
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.277177
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/277177/files/1223.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.277177?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Colin C. Williams & John Round & Peter Rodgers, 2009. "Evaluating The Motives Of Informal Entrepreneurs: Some Lessons From Ukraine," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 14(01), pages 59-71.
    2. Travis J. Lybbert & Bruce Wydick, 2017. "Hope as Aspirations, Agency, and Pathways: Poverty Dynamics and Microfinance in Oaxaca, Mexico," NBER Chapters, in: The Economics of Poverty Traps, pages 153-177, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Patricio S. Dalton & Sayantan Ghosal & Anandi Mani, 2016. "Poverty and Aspirations Failure," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 126(590), pages 165-188, February.
    4. Tanguy Bernard & Alemayehu Seyoum Taffesse, 2014. "Editor's choice Aspirations: An Approach to Measurement with Validation Using Ethiopian Data," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 23(2), pages 189-224.
    5. Karen Macours & Renos Vakis, 2014. "Changing Households' Investment Behaviour through Social Interactions with Local Leaders: Evidence from a Randomised Transfer Programme," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 0(576), pages 607-633, May.
    6. Binswanger, Hans P. & Deininger, Klaus, 1993. "South African land policy: The legacy of history and current options," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 21(9), pages 1451-1475, September.
    7. Dercon, Stefan & Orkin, Kate & Bernard, Tanguy & Taffesse, Alemayehu, 2014. "The Future in Mind: Aspirations and Forward-Looking Behaviour in Rural Ethiopia," CEPR Discussion Papers 10224, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    8. Ruth Hall, 2004. "A Political economy of land reform in South Africa," Review of African Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(100), pages 213-227, June.
    9. L. Pienaar & D. von Fintel, 2014. "Hunger in the former apartheid homelands: Determinants of convergence one century after the 1913 land act," Agrekon, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(4), pages 38-67, November.
    10. Markus Poschke, 2013. "‘Entrepreneurs out of necessity’: a snapshot," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(7), pages 658-663, May.
    11. repec:hal:pseose:halshs-01053534 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Karen Macours & Renos Vakis, 2014. "Changing Households' Investment Behaviour through Social Interactions with Local Leaders: Evidence from a Randomised Transfer Programme," Post-Print halshs-01313720, HAL.
    13. Tanguy Bernard & Alemayehu Seyoum Taffesse, 2014. "Aspirations: An approach to measurement with validation using ethiopian data," Post-Print hal-03022496, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Janzen, Sarah A. & Magnan, Nicholas & Sharma, Sudhindra & Thompson, William M., 2017. "Aspirations failure and formation in rural Nepal," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 1-25.
    2. Tabe-Ojong, Martin Paul Jr & Heckelei, Thomas & Baylis, Kathy, 2020. "Collective action and smallholder rural households: Implications for income and asset aspirations," 2020 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, Kansas City, Missouri 304580, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    3. Chivers, David, 2017. "Success, survive or escape? Aspirations and poverty traps," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 116-132.
    4. Tabe-Ojong, Jr., Martin Paul & Godana, Guyo, 2022. "Are Agro-clusters Pro-Poor? Evidence from Ethiopia," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322432, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    5. Paula Carrasco & Rodrigo Ceni & Ivonne Perazzo & Gonzalo Salas, 2019. "Are not any silver in the cloud? Subjective well-being among deprived young people," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 19-09, Instituto de Economía - IECON.
    6. Tabe-Ojong, Martin Paul Jr & Heckelei, Thomas & Rasch, Sebastian, 2022. "Aspirations and Investments in Livestock: Evidence of an aspiration failure in Kenya," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322435, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    7. Paula Carrasco & Rodrigo Ceni & Ivone Perazzo & Gonzalo Salas, 2021. "Are Not Any Silver Linings in the Cloud? Subjective Well-being Among Deprived Young People," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 491-516, February.
    8. Malhi, Fareena Noor, 2020. "Unconditional Cash Transfers: Do They Impact Aspirations of the Poor?," MPRA Paper 102509, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Garcia, Adriana & Lensink, Robert & Voors, Maarten, 2020. "Does microcredit increase aspirational hope? Evidence from a group lending scheme in Sierra Leone," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    10. Tabe-Ojong, Martin Paul Jr. & Nshakira-Rukundo, Emmanuel, 2021. "Religiosity and parental educational aspirations for children in Kenya," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 23(C).
    11. Raghunathan, Kalyani & Quisumbing, Agnes R. & Kumar, Neha & Cunningham, Kenda, 2018. "Women’s aspirations for the future, and their financial, social and educational investments," IFPRI discussion papers 1752, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    12. Pieter Serneels & Stefan Dercon, 2021. "Aspirations, Poverty, and Education. Evidence from India," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(1), pages 163-183, January.
    13. González-Jiménez, Víctor, 2022. "Social status and motivated beliefs," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    14. Tabe-Ojong, Martin Paul Jr & Heckelei, Thomas & Baylis, Kathy, 2020. "Aspiration formation and ecological shocks: An exploratory analysis in rural Kenya," 2020 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, Kansas City, Missouri 304583, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    15. Martin Paul Jr. Tabe-Ojong & Thomas Heckelei & Kathy Baylis, 2021. "Aspiration Formation and Ecological Shocks in Rural Kenya," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 33(4), pages 833-860, August.
    16. McKenzie, David & Mohpal, Aakash & Yang, Dean, 2022. "Aspirations and financial decisions: Experimental evidence from the Philippines," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    17. Britta Höllermann & Kristian Näschen & Naswiru Tibanyendela & Julius Kwesiga & Mariele Evers, 2021. "Dynamics of Human–Water Interactions in the Kilombero Valley, Tanzania: Insights from Farmers’ Aspirations and Decisions in an Uncertain Environment," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 33(4), pages 980-999, August.
    18. Justin Whetten & Matías Fontenla & Kira Villa, 2019. "Opportunities for higher education: the ten-year effects of conditional cash transfers on upper-secondary and tertiary enrollments," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(2), pages 222-237, April.
    19. Mekonnen, Daniel Ayalew, 2016. "Social Interactions and Aspirations Formation in Rural Ethiopia," Discussion Papers 250150, University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF).
    20. Galiani, Sebastian & Gertler, Paul J. & Undurraga, Raimundo, 2021. "Aspiration adaptation in resource-constrained environments," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Research Methods/ Statistical Methods;

    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:ags:iaae18:277177. 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: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iaaeeea.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.