The Gender Gap in Agricultural Productivity: The Role of Market Imperfections

Abstract

This paper hypothesises that labour and credit market imperfections – by discouraging off-farm income-generating activities and restricting access to inputs, respectively – affect female farm productivity more deeply than male productivity. The paper develops a theoretical model, which decomposes the contribution of various market imperfections to the gender productivity gap. Empirically we show that agricultural labour productivity is, on average, 44 per cent lower on female-headed plots than on those managed by male heads. 34 per cent of this gap is explained by differences in labour market access and 29 per cent by differences in credit access.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Vivian Hoffmann, Asif Islam, Talip Kilic, Patricio Korzeniewicz, Howard Leathers, Kenneth Leonard, Kabir Malik, Michael Settels, and the seminar participants at the Agricultural and Resource Economics Department of the University of Maryland for their comments on earlier versions of the paper.

Notes

1. Female plots refer to ‘plots managed by female heads of household’

2. The majority of the owned plots (81%) are acquired through inheritance. Another 12 per cent are reported to have been granted by local leaders. The remaining are acquired as bride price (2%), purchased with title (1%) and purchased without title (2%).