Caught in a Productivity Trap : A Distributional Perspective on Gender Differences in Malawian Agriculture
The vast majority of households in Malawi are involved in agriculture, and improving agricultural productivity, particularly for women, who tend to attain lower yields than men, could lead to significant poverty reduction and improvements in gender...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Brief |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2016
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/105321468271487196/Caught-in-a-productivity-trap-a-distributional-perspective-on-gender-differences-in-Malawian-agriculture http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25461 |
| Summary: | The vast majority of households in
Malawi are involved in agriculture, and improving
agricultural productivity, particularly for women, who tend
to attain lower yields than men, could lead to significant
poverty reduction and improvements in gender equality. This
study asks two main questions: (1) exactly how great are the
differences in agricultural productivity between men and
women in Malawi? And (2) how much of the gender gap is
explained by differences in levels of agricultural inputs
vs. differences in returns to these inputs? The author trace
the varying constraints faced by farmers at different levels
of productivity, as well as at average productivity, a level
of analysis that is crucial for designing effective
interventions aimed at bridging the gender gap. We find that
on average, female-managed plots are 25 percent less
productive than plots managed by males. Further, the gender
gap widens significantly as agricultural productivity
increases. More than 80 percent of the mean gender gap is
explained by differences in levels of agricultural inputs,
suggesting that addressing market and institutional failures
underlying these differences could have direct economic benefits. |
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