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This paper presents estimates of total personal income for every U.S state in 1880, 1890, 1900, and 1910. The series includes new figures for 1890 and 1910, and revisions of Richard Easterlin's (1960) figures for 1880 and 1900 based on recent economic history research. The new estimates allow better examination of U.S. interregional income differences and cyclical behavior of U.S. states’ total personal income.

This chapter proposes that efforts to improve our understanding of factors affecting migrant health and longevity in the United States must consider migrants’ labor market incorporation and the structural conditions under which they work. I use public-use death certificate data to examine whether there is a mortality penalty for foreign-born workers in the secondary sector industries of agriculture and construction. I focus on the decade of the 1990s for two contextual and empirical reasons: (1) the decade was characterized by economic restructuring, restrictive immigration policy, increased migration, and dispersion of migrants to new geographic destinations; and (2) the 1990s is an opportunistic decade because 19 states coded the industry and occupation of the decedent during this time. These numerator mortality data and Census denominator data are used to compare all-cause mortality rates between working-age (16–64 years) US-born and foreign-born agricultural and construction workers, the overall foreign-born population, and foreign-born workers in health care – an industry where the foreign-born tend to work in well-paid occupations that are well-regulated by the state. The results show a clear mortality penalty for foreign-born workers in agriculture and construction compared to the overall foreign-born population and foreign-born healthcare workers. The results also show the mortality penalty for foreign-born secondary sector workers varies by industry. These findings support the argument that bringing work into our analyses is critical to understanding the contextual and structural factors affecting migrant health and survival.

Which is the main characteristic of the French Mediterranean Agriculture (FMA)? The recognition of the multifunctionality of agriculture, supported by the institutions of the territorial development? Or the development of social dumping considered as a necessity by many institutions of the sector? To answer this question the analysis is based on three main sources of data: agricultural statistics, monographs and administrative reports. The results show that the structural diversity is still important in the FMA. A significant proportion of the farms have based their economic strategy on making the most of the multifunctionality of agriculture. Some have built real success stories. But this development path cannot guarantee the viability of a large range of holdings: the number of farm holdings in FMA has decreased by 27% since 2000 and 57% since 1988. Due to the specificities of the Mediterranean productions, the cost of labour is still considered as a major adjustment variable to secure farm income in the region. Many situations are reported where the situation of casual labour is concerning, in particular for migrant workers. However, the working conditions of temporary migrant workers remain invisible and the image of the multifunctional agriculture is put forward as a marketing asset by all types of actors. This image is misleading. It makes invisible, issues that are essential for the future. Thus, it generates knowledge gaps and leads to the depoliticization of debates on the development models of agriculture in masking the contradictions and the conflicts of interest that they generate.

Since the post-liberalization era, a noticeable structural change and transition in employment have unfolded within the Indian economy. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to understand employment transition and elucidate the evolving dynamics of rural economies and employment patterns from agriculture to more productive non-agricultural sectors. Additionally, the study investigates the underlying causes of socioeconomic disparities and their repercussions on employment trends.

To address the aforementioned issues, this study utilised secondary data from labour surveys conducted by the National Sample Survey Organisation spanning from 2004–05 to 2023. Initially, the study computed the magnitude of employment in both agriculture and non-agriculture sectors. Subsequently, the distribution of non-agricultural labour across various socioeconomic characteristics was estimated. Furthermore, a logistic regression model was employed to evaluate the impact of socioeconomic factors on employment choices. Finally, Fairlie’s decomposition model was applied to elucidate workers’ decisions to engage in non-agricultural sectors.

The study reveals a significant rise in rural non-agricultural employment, from 98.4 m in 2004–05 to 193.3 m in 2023, indicating changing job preferences. Notably, the construction and trade sectors emerge as significant drivers of this trend. However, self-employment and casual labour persist, highlighting job vulnerability. Additionally, women and marginalised individuals with low levels of education and socioeconomic status lag behind in non-agricultural employment.

This study makes a significant contribution by offering a thorough analysis of the employment transition from agriculture to non-agriculture over a span of two decades. It provides valuable insights into the evolving dynamics of employment trends.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-11-2023-0904.

Agriculture is the major source of livelihood for the majority of population in Sub-Saharan Africa but its productivity is not only low it has started showing signs of decline since 2012. The purpose of this paper is to find out whether official development assistance for agriculture is effective.

The data for development assistance for agriculture are broken down into the major agricultural sectors in receiving countries. The empirical evidence is based on the two-step system, i.e. generalized method of moments, to assess the degree of responsiveness of agricultural productivity to development assistance.

There is a positive relationship between development assistance and agricultural productivity in general. However, when broken down into the major agricultural recipient sectors, there is a substitution effect between food crop production and industrial crop production. Better institutions and economic freedom are found to enable agricultural productivity growth, and to increase the effectiveness of development assistance. The structural economic transformation associated with agricultural development assistance is also found to be weak.

Allocation of development assistance for agriculture is primarily determined by need, although expected effectiveness also increases the assistance receipts. Agricultural assistance policies could focus more on building productive capacity to reduce the need while boosting effectiveness.

Breaking down data into agricultural recipient sectors and controlling for the potential spurious correlation under the assumption that more development assistance could be allocated, where agricultural productivity is already increasing due to some other factors.

Farm labor contractors operate as intermediaries between farmworkers and agricultural employers by recruiting and supplying labor to US farms. In a political economy where there are employer sanctions for hiring workers without proper documentation, contractors share risk alongside final employers. Furthermore, contractors may facilitate quick employment matches during time sensitive agricultural tasks such as harvesting. For undocumented workers, using a contractor may decrease uncertainty associated with a foreign labor market and ease language barriers. The purpose of this paper is to examine the current role of labor contractors in delivering immigrant agricultural workers, particularly undocumented workers, to farms.

Determinants of labor contractor use and relationships to final worker outcomes are examined using econometric methods and a large nationally‐representative worker survey that is distinctive in that it distinguishes legal status.

Undocumented farmworkers are shown to be more likely to use contractors than are documented workers, though statistical significance is sensitive to the inclusion of crop and task indicators, and wages and fringe compensation to workers who use contractors are lower, even after controlling for legal status.

The paper contributes to limited recent academic work on the role of labor contractors in US agriculture. Future work may examine ongoing changes to this role in the context of mutable immigration policy and public opinion.

It is argued that the decline in labor contracting increases the need for employer‐level bilingual communication skills and compliance with labor regulations.

Understanding current dynamics of the agricultural labor market should be of value to scholars of rural economies, farm owners and agricultural policymakers.

Public health measures implemented early in the COVID-19 pandemic brought the idea of essential work into the public discourse, as the public reflected upon what types of work are essential for society to function, who performs that work, and how the labour of essential workers is rewarded. This chapter focusses on the rewards associated with essential work. The authors develop an intersectional lens on work that was officially deemed essential in 2020 to highlight longstanding patterns of devaluation among essential workers, including those undergirded by systemic racism in employment and labour law. The authors use quantitative data from the CPS-MORG to examine earnings differences between essential and non-essential workers and investigate whether the essential worker wage gap changed from month to month in 2020. The authors find that patterns of valuation among essential workers cannot be explained by human capital or other standard labour market characteristics. Rather, intersectional wage inequalities in 2020 reflect historical patterns that are highly durable and did not abate in the first year of the global pandemic.

The State of Ceara, located in Northeastern Brazil, is one of the poorest states, with a population of about eight million inhabitants. Its gross domestic product (GDP) per capita is less than half that of Brazil as a whole: it reached R$2,666 in 1998 (equal to about US$1,400), compared with R$5,560 in Brazil as a whole (equal to about US$2,900). However, the economic policy in the last decade has led to a rapid growth in the economy of Ceara in comparison with national economy. In real terms, the GDP of Brazil has grown by 34% from 1985 to 1998, while the GDP of Ceara has grown during this same period by 58%. Preliminary data for 1999 indicate an additional growth close to 3% and a growth of 5.8% in the first 6 months of 2000 (as compared with the first 6 months of 1999). This is a much higher growth than that of the whole of Brazil, which reached 3.8% in the same period. This has led to a considerable increase of this state's share in the national GDP, from 1.5% in 1990 to 2.1% in 1998, with a continuing trend till 2000. In terms of GDP per capita, the gap between Ceara and Brazil as a whole is still very large, although it decreased considerably during this period: the GDP per capita in Ceara was only 35% of Brazilian GDP per capita in 1990, and it grew to 48% in 1998.

To describe the Pragathi Bandhu Groups (PBG) Model and portray the performance of PBG farmers encouraged by their financial and decision-making participation in micro financing and labor sharing, as well as to analyze the factors that influenced participation of small farmers in PBG.

The empirical study is confined to the small farmers and laborers of PBG functioning in the coastal districts of Karnataka State in India. The study is conducted in Belthangady and Bantwal Taluks of Dakshina Kannada (DK) Districts-Udupi taluk of Udupi District in the State of Karnataka. Primary data from 100 farmer members, selected at random in each of the Taluks, is collected through personal interview by administering semi-structured interview schedules and open discussion. In addition, the data on the functions and the performance of PBG in the State of Karnataka in India are also collected from the official records of Shri Kshetra Dharmasthala Rural Development Project (SKDRDP) and their field-level functionaries through informal discussions. Factor analysis is performed with principal component analysis followed by Varimax rotation to analyze the factors that influenced participation of small farmers in PBG.

Results show that the implementation of PBG Model, through the collective participation of small farmers in micro financing, free labor sharing, financial and decision-making activities underlying the functions of PBG Model, has helped them to achieve robust performance in terms of increased savings mobilization, loan utilization, and value of free labor sharing and acres of land brought under cultivation with the help of irrigation facilities created by them. The factor analysis has derived four factors that influenced the participation of farmers in PBG (agriculture development, financial participation, capacity building, and other benefits) which explain 63.701 of total factor variance.

The findings of this paper can benefit the small farmers and laborers in replicating the PBG Model and its initiatives that address shortages of labor and credit, as well as the high cost of labor, particularly in the unorganized sector in the agrarian economy.

The insights offered are likely to be beneficial to the distressed small farmers, development agencies, and agriculture policy makers to solve the agrarian crisis caused due to shortages of labor and farm credit.

Before the industrial revolution, the working child was ‘an auxiliary or unseen actor in the labour market,’ but after the industrial revolution, the child became a ‘required and visible worker.’ The former criterion is still the case in many countries including developed countries. In Turkey ‘having child labour in small-scale workplaces with less than three employees and agricultural areas with less than 50 employees is not prohibited’. This makes the situation prone to the exploitation of child labour in these areas. In this country, one out of every two working children is in the agricultural field, and one out of every six children is in the industrial field. The causes of child labour in Turkey are described as poverty, inability to benefit from/access educational services, migration from rural to urban areas, unemployment of adult family members, a tradition, shortcomings and ineffective implementation of the legislation, and employers' demand and irregular migration. The results include mental, physical and spiritual problems. In this context, protecting children, the most sensitive and vulnerable individuals of the society, from the consequences of risky working environments should be an important and primary goal of the whole world.