Land, Labor, and Rural Poverty : Essays in Development Economics

272 Pages·1984·13.629 MB·English

by  Pranab Bardhan

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Essays in Development Economics
Pranab K. Bardhan
LAND, LABOR,
AND RURAL POVERTY
Essays in
Development Economics
Pranab K. Bardhan
Until very recently much of the
analytical attention in development
economics has been devoted to macro
issues and to aggregative models of
development and planning. But the
micro-foundations of these models
are usually rather shaky. This book is
among the first of its kind to redirect
the focus of attention to the nature of
individual contractual arrangements,
the various special, often person-
alized, ties between individual agents
in economic transactions, types of
segmentation of markets and
splintering of classes, and the
rationale of formation of institutions
like that of labor tying, share-
cropping, and interlocking of land or
labor contracts with credit—all with
reference to the agrarian economy of
India.
In this book Pranab K. Bardhan
constructs simple theoretical models,
looking into the origin and evolving
nature of these institutions. He
develops testable hypotheses and
verifies them with large, yet fairly
intensive, data sets relating to rural
India. For this purpose he has used
cross-section data at the level of agro-
climatic regions as well as large and
detailed household-level and farm-
level data files (from sources such as
the National Sample Surveys and the
Farm Management Surveys). In addi-
tion, Bardhan has supplemented
(Continued on back flap)
Sees
AVA.

Land, Labor, and Rural Poverty

Land, Labor, and Rural Poverty
Essays in Development Economics
Pranab K. Bardhan
DELHI
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS
1984
Columbia University Press
New York Guildford, Surrey
Copyright © 1984 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Bardhan, Pranab K.
Land, labor, and rural poverty.
Bibliography: p.
Includes indexes.
1. Agriculture—Economic aspects—India. 2. India—
Rural conditions. 3. Agricultural laborers—India.
4. Land tenure—India. 5. Rural poor—India. I. Title.
HD2072.B29 1982 338.1'0954 83-—10082
ISBN 0-231-05388-6
ISBN 0-231-05389-4 (pbk.)
Printed in the United States of America
Clothbound editions of Columbia University Press Books
are Smyth-sewn and printed on permanent and durable
acid-free paper
Contents
Preface Vil
Introduction
Part A. AGRICULTURAL LABOR
Peasant Labor Supply: A Statistical Analysis
LS Seasonal Withdrawals from Female Labor Force and
Measuremant of Unemployment 30
Demand for Hired Farm Labor 38
Wages and Unemployment 47
Labor-Tying in Agriculture a
DARL
Credit-Labor Linkage 86
Part B. LAND LEASE
Incentives, Sharecropping, and Cost Sharing 95
Tenurial Insecurity and Land Improvements 105
c4oo
Terms and Conditions of Sharecropping Contracts:
An Analysis of Village Survey Data in India 112
10. Cross-Section Variations in the Extent of Tenancy 127
Dh. Cross-Section Variations in Forms of Tenancy 142
Part C. PRODUCTION RELATIONS AND POVERTY
12. Interlocking Factor Markets 157
ee Agrarian Class Formation 167
14. Poverty of Agricultural Laborers and “Trickle-Down”
in Rural India 188
On Life and Death Questions: Poverty and
Child Mortality in Rural India 200
16. Private Property as a Growth Constraint in a
Hydraulic Economy 212
Appendix Tables 221
Glossary of Variables 235
References 241
Author Index 249
Subject Index 251
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