Agricultural wages in Bangladesh: What do the figures really show?

Using new data and a different model, Palmer‐Jones [1993] has questioned the conclusions of Boyce and Ravallion [1991] concerning the evolution over time of agricultural wages in Bangladesh. I argue that Palmer‐Jones's model is unconvincing and that the main conclusions of Boyce and Ravallion are far more robust than he suggests. Wages respond sluggishly to rice prices. Bangladesh's (limited) agricultural growth has not raised the real wage rate, which was on a downward trend for most of the 1960s and 1970s. The mid‐1980s saw higher real wages, though this cannot yet be deemed a reversal of the previous trend.