Patterns of Rural Development: A Cross-Country Comparison Using Microeconomic Data

This article proposes a general pattern of rural development in which increases in per capita income are associated with a decline in the importance of agricultural production and a rise in the importance of non-agricultural income sources. Following the approach to examining Engel's Law, we us...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Winters, Paul, Essam, Timothy, Zezza, Alberto, Davis, Benjamin, Carletto, Calogero
Language:EN
Published: 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5025
Description
Summary:This article proposes a general pattern of rural development in which increases in per capita income are associated with a decline in the importance of agricultural production and a rise in the importance of non-agricultural income sources. Following the approach to examining Engel's Law, we use data from 15 developing countries and a merged dataset to test whether such a pattern emerges. The analysis shows a strong, positive relationship between per capita income and the share of income earned from rural non-agricultural wage employment and a negative relationship between per capita income and agricultural production.