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The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of infrastructure on the income growth and poverty reduction of rural household in China by estimating the impact of road accessibility on the extent of household off-farm employment and its heterogeneous effects among the groups with different income level and earning capacity.

Using nationally representative panel data collected in 100 villages about 2000 households across five provinces in 2005, 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2019. This study adopts Tobit model with panel data, zero-inflated Poisson model and static nonbalanced panel model to yield consistent results.

We find that road accessibility generally has no effect on the number of off-farm laborers and duration of off-farm employment. However, road accessibility is not beneficial for the households in the low-income villages or with low educational attainment, but it benefits the households in the high-income villages by promoting local off-farm employment or with high educational attainment by increasing the duration of migrant off-farm employment.

This study identifies the heterogeneous effects of road accessibility on the extent of off-farm employment among rural households, which narrows the research gap and enriches the literature. The empirical findings imply that road accessibility widens the gap between rich and poor in off-farm employment, which is of great important to the alleviation of relative poverty after 2020 in China.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors that affect farmer’s decision to allocate credit for livestock production. The results are expected to contribute to the understanding of what motivates smallholders to allocate credit to agricultural production in general and livestock production in particular. A better understanding of the farmers’ behavior in allocating credit for livestock would provide useful information for project implementers and financial institutions that work with small-scale livestock producers.

A cross-section data set collected in 2014 from 5,000 households and 497 rural communities in the major highland regions of Ethiopia is examined. The authors developed a conceptual framework for credit allocation decision. Percentiles, means, and standard deviation as well as t, χ² and Fisher’s exact tests for association and Cramer’s V measure for strength of association have been used to describe the status of farmer’s access to credit and analyze credit utilization, while a three-stage probit model with double sample selection is used to identify factors that affect household’s decision to allocate credit for livestock production.

After controlling for potential selection biases, sex and literacy status of household head, land size, wealth and access to livestock centered extension service are found to have a statistically significant effect on farmers’ decision to allocate credit to livestock production. The results showed female-headed households, wealthy farmers, farmers with small plot of land and farmers that have access to livestock centered extension services are more likely to allocate the credit for livestock production. The results suggest that policies aimed at improving access to credit together with access to livestock focused extension service are more effective in increasing livestock production.

The study’s findings should be viewed with perspective and caution, as only households with excess demand for credit were the subject of the research.

The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, it is one of a very few empirical studies that try to identify factors that affect households credit allocation to livestock in systematic way that removed confounding effects using three-stage probit models. Given the emphasis on financial constraints in livestock development, new empirical insights on household credit allocation are essential to better inform development interventions. Second, the analysis relies on a comprehensive data set that represents the major agricultural system of the country.

The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the effect of high‐level human capital investment, using tertiary education as the proxy, on the urban‐rural income gap in China.

Using a panel dataset covering 28 provinces of China over the period from 1988 to 2007, this paper employs Hansen's method and two‐step GMM‐SYS estimator to estimate the threshold regression model and the dynamic fixed‐effect panel model, respectively.

The urban‐rural income gap is found to be related to high‐level human capital investment in an inverted U‐shaped pattern with respect to economic development level. The estimated threshold turning point is around 20,000 RMB GDP per capita. This estimate is sufficiently robust to model specifications and variants of the dependent variable.

The authors forecast that high‐level human capital investment could play a role in bridging the urban‐rural income gap at the national level by 2014, when China's GDP per capita assumes an annual growth rate of 7.5 percent.

This, it is believed, is the first research to find an inverted U‐shaped pattern for high‐level human capital investment and urban‐rural income gap nexus in China.

This paper examines household and community characteristics that influence the entry of rural households into non-farm entrepreneurship and investigates the various factors that influence the market exit of non-farm enterprises (NFEs).

The authors use data from three rounds (2011/12, 2013/14 and 2015/16) of the World Bank’s Living Standards Measurement Study – Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA). The authors employ panel logit and multilevel logit models to examine the probability of opening one or more enterprises and the enterprise exit rates.

Results indicate that the likelihood of starting a NFE is positively associated with primary education attainment, access to credit, experiencing idiosyncratic shocks and availability of formal financial institutions. Age, higher education attainment and rising farm input prices constrain entry into non-farm entrepreneurship. The enterprise exit rate is negatively associated with small-town residence, wealth, access to tar/gravel roads and cellphone communication.

Policymakers and administrators should strive to address the challenges that communities face in transportation, communication and financial services. Policies aimed at stabilizing prices and increasing access to mobile communication, primary education and road infrastructure could help expand the rural non-farm sector.

Previous studies primarily examined the determinants of participation in NFEs at a given time using cross-sectional data. The current study uses panel data to study the dynamics of NFE ownership by investigating households’ decisions to enter into or exit from the sector.

The peer review history for this article is available at https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-09-2022-0611

As rural nonfarm activities grow in developing countries, less attention is being paid to the opportunities they may provide for women. The purpose of this study is to examine the gender-differentiated impact of nonfarm diversification strategies in rural Senegal.

This study uses data collected from the Senegalese poverty monitoring survey and employs an instrumental variable (IV) approach and a multinomial endogenous treatment model to investigate the extent to which diversification strategies lead to improved outcomes for rural women and their households.

While nonfarm diversification is a male-dominated livelihood strategy, rural women make the most of it, regardless of whether they diversify into low- or high-return nonfarm activities. At the individual level, diversification improves rural women’s well-being through large income-increasing effects and higher empowerment but has no effect on rural men’s well-being. At the household level, the authors find that, when only women diversify, households have lower per capita income but are less likely to be food insecure than when only men or both genders diversify.

This study is based on cross-sectional data, making it impossible to examine the dynamic effects of nonfarm diversification strategies on well-being outcomes.

This study contributes to the current literature on rural livelihood diversification. While much attention has been paid to the feminization of agriculture, remarkably little is known about the expanding role of rural women in the nonfarm sector.

A wide urban–rural income gap exists in China despite the implementation of pro-rural policies. Additionally, with the proliferation of the internet and information technology, the promotion effect of e-commerce on the economy has become apparent. Accordingly, China has been actively encouraging rural households to participate in e-commerce activities. This study aims to examine the effect of e-commerce on the urban–rural income gap.

In the study, linear and panel threshold models were applied to provincial-level panel data from 2002 to 2018.

The results of the linear model show that e-commerce contributes to narrowing the urban–rural income gap. Moreover, the panel threshold model results show that the narrowing effect exists in regions where the e-commerce intensity is at a medium-to-high level and urbanization is at a relatively low level; otherwise, e-commerce has no effect. In addition, in regions with a relatively high level of public expenditure and education, the income-gap-narrowing effect of e-commerce is more than double.

The urban–rural income gap can be reduced by promoting e-commerce and reducing the urban–rural divide in e-commerce use.

To determine how varying levels of e-commerce development affect the urban–rural income gap across regions, the study proposes four key causes of the digital divide in e-commerce: e-commerce intensity, public expenditure level, urbanization level and education level and applies the variables as threshold variables to examine the non-linear effect of e-commerce on the income gap.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of mechanization services on farm productivity in Northern China from an empirical perspective, with the aim to identify the underlying market and institutional barriers.

The authors apply the regression method with the control of village fixed effects to examining the relationship between capital–labor ratio, mechanization service ratio and farm productivity, using the panel data collected in 2013 and 2015 by CCAP.

Mechanization services improve farm productivity through substituting labor, but it may generate a less positive impact on farms who do not have self-owned capital equipment.

It is the first study to investigate how mechanization services affect farm productivity for grain producers in Northern China.

The purpose of this paper is to present a discussion on the idea of “policy rationing”. Policy rationing refers to constraining impacts on farm credit through policy action or inaction. To present the ideas the author discusses ten themes in policy rationing, ranging from macro‐finance policies to smart lending and financial inclusion.

The paper is developed as a narrative on agricultural credit policies based largely on existing literature.

This paper argues that the various critiques of rural credit policy in favor of free market principles have generally not worked in developing economies. Large numbers of farmers do not have access to formal credit. It is argued that there is a role for government and credit programs.

The opinions expressed in this paper are based on existing literature and not all ideas hold with general agreement across researchers and practitioners. The discussion is not exhaustive and in some cases the ideas might have been parsed further.

In this paper the author discusses ten themes that he thinks are relevant for a balanced discussion of farm credit in a development context. These themes illustrate a variety of complexities with respect to rural credit policy. The author ends by restating the themes in the form of ten questions that should be asked in whole, or in part, before any farm credit policy is field‐implemented.

This paper deals with a broad range of issues on rural credit policy. It is directed towards a reformation of ideas about credit policy, especially in developing economies. It is argued that, all things considered, on balance there is a role for government in rural credit policy.

There is much discourse amongst development economist about the role of government and credit policy in agricultural development. By thinking of government action or inaction as a form of policy rationing, some clarification is brought to the policy debate.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the potential relationship between farm income variability and off-farm employment decisions in the short and medium term for the case of Irish farm operators.

Panel probit models of off-farm labour supply are estimated using Teagasc National Farm Survey data for Irish farms. The framework is based largely on standard expected utility but includes a constraint for recent employment history.

The analyses identifies some evidence of a positive association between farm income variability and off-farm employment in the medium term but no significant relationship in the short term. This suggests that off-farm employment is part of a wider portfolio decision but is not a strong solution to short-term farm income shocks.

European farmers increasingly face high income variability but financial risk management tools are not sufficiently developed or widely accessible to assist farmers in managing the associated risk. This deficiency can have negative implications for household economic welfare and future farm investments and hence the future farm income. Off-farm employment can form part of a wider medium-term portfolio strategy but more effective tools are also required for risk management particularly in dealing with short-term volatility and where off-farm employment is not a realistic endeavour given time constraints and/or demographics.

The estimation of farm income variability includes a detrending method thus reducing the likelihood of overestimating farm income variability for farms in deliberate expansion or decline. While previous research has typically focused on the short-term response of farmers to historical farm income variability, this research has distinguished between the short and medium term.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the policy and trends in rural education in China over the past 40 years; and also discuss a number of challenges that are faced by China’s rural school system.

The authors use secondary data on policies and trends over the past 40 years for preschool, primary/junior high school, and high school.

The trends over the past 40 years in all areas of rural schooling have been continually upward and strong. While only a low share of rural children attended preschool in the 1980s, by 2014 more than 90 percent of rural children were attending. The biggest achievement in compulsory education is that the rise in the number of primary students that finish grade 6 and matriculate to junior high school. There also was a steep rise of those going to and completing high school. While the successes in upscaling rural education are absolutely unprecedented, there are still challenges.

This is descriptive analysis and there is not causal link established between policies and rural schooling outcomes.

The authors illustrate one of the most rapid rises of rural education in history and match the achievements up with the policy efforts of the government. The authors also explore policy priorities that will be needed in the coming years to raise the quality of schooling.

This is the first paper that documents both the policies and the empirical trends of the success that China has created in building rural education from preschool to high school during the first 40 years of reform (1978-2018). The paper also documents – drawing on the literature and the own research – the achievements and challenges that China still face in the coming years, including issues of gender, urbanization, early childhood education and health and nutrition of students.