The impact of farmers' health and nutritional status on their productivity and efficiency: Evidence from Ethiopia

Economic Development and Cultural Change

Volumn 48, Issue 3, 2000, Pages 475-502

  Croppenstedt, Andre ^a   Muller, Christophe ^b  

^a Food and Agriculture Organization

^b UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION; HEALTH STATUS; NUTRITIONAL STATUS; TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY;

ETHIOPIA;

EID: 0034046171     PISSN: 00130079     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1086/452607     Document Type: Article

References (79)

1. Aggregate figures taken from World Bank, World Development Reports (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993, 1994, 1995), unless otherwise indicated.
2. Cereals account for about 83% of the area used to cultivate major crops. Central Statistical Authority, Agricultural Sample Survey: Report on Area and Production for Major Crops, Statistical Bulletin no. 132 (Addis Ababa: Central Statistical Authority, 1995).
3. Following the defeat of the soviet style Derg government, the Transi-tional Government of Ethiopia (TGE) took power in 1991. The TGE made the agricultural sector a central plank of its development plan. Elections were held in 1995, but most policies regarding agriculture have not changed. Land, e.g., is still public property, and the sale of land is prohibited.
4. Figures are estimates for the 1994-95 meher (main) season for private peasant households taken from the Central Statistical Authority bulletin no. 132.
5. See G. Diriba, Economy at the Crossroads: Famine and Food Security in Rural Ethiopia (Addis Ababa: Care International, 1995); and P. Webb and J. Von Braun, Famine and Food Security in Ethiopia: Lessons for Africa (Chiches-ter: Wiley, 1994).
6. See G. Diriba, Economy at the Crossroads: Famine and Food Security in Rural Ethiopia (Addis Ababa: Care International, 1995); and P. Webb and J. Von Braun, Famine and Food Security in Ethiopia: Lessons for Africa (Chiches-ter: Wiley, 1994).
7. Central Statistical Authority, Report on the National Rural Nutrition Survey: Core Module, Statistical Bulletin no. 113 (Addis Ababa: Central Statistical Authority, 1993). Also see D. L. Pelletier, K. Deneke, Y. Kidane, B. Haile, and F. Negussie, "The Food-First Bias in Nutrition Policy: Lessons from Ethiopia," Food Policy 20 (1995): 279-98, who make the point that chronic malnutrition is found even in food surplus regions in Ethiopia and is related not only to food availability.
8. Central Statistical Authority, Report on the National Rural Nutrition Survey: Core Module, Statistical Bulletin no. 113 (Addis Ababa: Central Statistical Authority, 1993). Also see D. L. Pelletier, K. Deneke, Y. Kidane, B. Haile, and F. Negussie, "The Food-First Bias in Nutrition Policy: Lessons from Ethiopia," Food Policy 20 (1995): 279-98, who make the point that chronic malnutrition is found even in food surplus regions in Ethiopia and is related not only to food availability.
9. J. R. Behrman, "The Economic Rationale for Investing in Nutrition in Developing Countries," World Development 21, no. 11 (1993): 1749-71.
10. H. A. Leibenstein, Economic Backwardness and Economic Growth (New York: Wiley, 1957). See also J. E. Stiglitz, "The Efficiency Wage Hypothesis, Surplus Labor, and the Distribution of Income in LDC's," Oxford Economic Papers 28, no. 2 (1976): 185-207; J. A. Mirrlees, "A Pure Theory of Underdeveloped Economies," in Agriculture in Development Theory, ed. L. Reynolds (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1976). A thorough treatment can be found in C. Bliss and N. Stern, "Productivity, Wages, and Nutrition: The Theory," and "Productivity, Wages, and Nutrition: Some Observations," Journal of Development Economics 5, no. 4 (1978): 331-98.
11. H. A. Leibenstein, Economic Backwardness and Economic Growth (New York: Wiley, 1957). See also J. E. Stiglitz, "The Efficiency Wage Hypothesis, Surplus Labor, and the Distribution of Income in LDC's," Oxford Economic Papers 28, no. 2 (1976): 185-207; J. A. Mirrlees, "A Pure Theory of Underdeveloped Economies," in Agriculture in Development Theory, ed. L. Reynolds (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1976). A thorough treatment can be found in C. Bliss and N. Stern, "Productivity, Wages, and Nutrition: The Theory," and "Productivity, Wages, and Nutrition: Some Observations," Journal of Development Economics 5, no. 4 (1978): 331-98.
12. H. A. Leibenstein, Economic Backwardness and Economic Growth (New York: Wiley, 1957). See also J. E. Stiglitz, "The Efficiency Wage Hypothesis, Surplus Labor, and the Distribution of Income in LDC's," Oxford Economic Papers 28, no. 2 (1976): 185-207; J. A. Mirrlees, "A Pure Theory of Underdeveloped Economies," in Agriculture in Development Theory, ed. L. Reynolds (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1976). A thorough treatment can be found in C. Bliss and N. Stern, "Productivity, Wages, and Nutrition: The Theory," and "Productivity, Wages, and Nutrition: Some Observations," Journal of Development Economics 5, no. 4 (1978): 331-98.
13. H. A. Leibenstein, Economic Backwardness and Economic Growth (New York: Wiley, 1957). See also J. E. Stiglitz, "The Efficiency Wage Hypothesis, Surplus Labor, and the Distribution of Income in LDC's," Oxford Economic Papers 28, no. 2 (1976): 185-207; J. A. Mirrlees, "A Pure Theory of Underdeveloped Economies," in Agriculture in Development Theory, ed. L. Reynolds (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1976). A thorough treatment can be found in C. Bliss and N. Stern, "Productivity, Wages, and Nutrition: The Theory," and "Productivity, Wages, and Nutrition: Some Observations," Journal of Development Economics 5, no. 4 (1978): 331-98.
14. Bliss and Stern, "Productivity, Wages, and Nutrition," pts. 1 and 2, and Palanpur: The Economy of an Indian Village (Oxford: Clarendon, 1982).
15. P. Dasgupta and D. Ray, "Inequality as a Determinant of Malnutrition and Unemployment: Theory," Economic Journal 96 (December 1986): 1011-43, and "Inequality as a Determinant of Malnutrition and Unemployment: Pol-icy," Economic Journal 97 (March 1987): 177-88.
16. P. Dasgupta and D. Ray, "Inequality as a Determinant of Malnutrition and Unemployment: Theory," Economic Journal 96 (December 1986): 1011-43, and "Inequality as a Determinant of Malnutrition and Unemployment: Pol-icy," Economic Journal 97 (March 1987): 177-88.
17. See A. D. Foster and M. R. Rosenzweig, "A Test for Moral Hazard in the Labor Market: Contractual Arrangement, Effort, and Health," Review of Economics and Statistics 76, no. 2 (1994): 213-27, and "Comparative Advantage, Information, and the Allocation of Workers to Tasks: Evidence from an Agricultural Labour Market," Review of Economic Studies 63 (1996): 347-74.
18. See A. D. Foster and M. R. Rosenzweig, "A Test for Moral Hazard in the Labor Market: Contractual Arrangement, Effort, and Health," Review of Economics and Statistics 76, no. 2 (1994): 213-27, and "Comparative Advantage, Information, and the Allocation of Workers to Tasks: Evidence from an Agricultural Labour Market," Review of Economic Studies 63 (1996): 347-74.
19. R. Baldwin and B. Weisbrod, "Disease and Labor Productivity," Economic Development and Cultural Change 22, no. 3 (1974): 414-35; and B. Weisbrod and T. Helminiak, "Parasitic Diseases and Agricultural Labor Productivity," Economic Development and Cultural Change 25, no. 3 (1977): 505-22.
20. R. Baldwin and B. Weisbrod, "Disease and Labor Productivity," Economic Development and Cultural Change 22, no. 3 (1974): 414-35; and B. Weisbrod and T. Helminiak, "Parasitic Diseases and Agricultural Labor Productivity," Economic Development and Cultural Change 25, no. 3 (1977): 505-22.
21. L-F. Lee, "Health and Wage: A Simultaneous Equation Model with Multiple Discrete Indicators," International Economic Review 23, no. 1 (1982): 199-221.
22. M. M. Pitt and M. R. Rosenzweig, "Agricultural Prices, Food Consumption, and the Health and Productivity of Farmers," in Agricultural Household Models: Extensions, Applications, and Policy, ed. I. J. Singh, L. Squire, and J. Strauss (Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 1986).
23. See J. R. Behrman and A. B. Deolalikar, "Health and Nutrition," in Handbook of Development Economics, vol. 1, ed. H. Chenery and T. N. Srinivasan (Amsterdam: Elsevier Science, 1988); and D. Thomas and J. Strauss, "Human Resources: Empirical Modelling of Household and Family Decisions," in Handbook of Development Economics, vol. 3a, ed. J. R. Behrman and T. N. Srinivasan (Amsterdam: Elsevier Science, 1997), for surveys on the role of health and nutrition in economic development.
24. See J. R. Behrman and A. B. Deolalikar, "Health and Nutrition," in Handbook of Development Economics, vol. 1, ed. H. Chenery and T. N. Srinivasan (Amsterdam: Elsevier Science, 1988); and D. Thomas and J. Strauss, "Human Resources: Empirical Modelling of Household and Family Decisions," in Handbook of Development Economics, vol. 3a, ed. J. R. Behrman and T. N. Srinivasan (Amsterdam: Elsevier Science, 1997), for surveys on the role of health and nutrition in economic development.
25. J. Strauss, "Does Better Nutrition Raise Farm Productivity?" Journal of Political Economy 94, no. 2 (1986): 297-320, uses data on household level food availability (market purchased and home production) to construct daily calorie availability per household. No anthropometric data, i.e., measures of nutritional outcomes, are available in this study.
26. A. B. Deolalikar, "Nutrition and Labor Productivity in Agriculture: Estimates for Rural South India," Review of Economics and Statistics 70, no. 3 (1988): 406-13, treated only farm family in efficiency units. Both calorie intake and the WFH measure are averages, weighted by the proportion of total on-farm family labor supplied by each family laborer.
27. M. Fafchamps and A. Quisumbing, Human Capital, Productivity, and Labor Allocation in Rural Pakistan (Washington, D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute, 1997).
28. D. E. Sahn and H. Alderman, "The Effects of Human Capital on Wages and the Determinants of Labor Supply in a Developing Country," Journal of Development Economics 29, no. 2 (1988): 157-84; J. R. Behrman and A. B. Deolalikar, "Agricultural Wages in India: The Role of Health, Nutrition, and Seasonality," in Seasonal Variability in Third World Agriculture: The Consequences for Food Security, ed. D. E. Sahn (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989); L. J. Haddad and H. E. Bouis, "The Impact of Nutritional Status on Agricultural Productivity: Wage Evidence from the Philippines," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics 53, no. 1 (1991): 45-68; A. D. Foster and M. R. Rosenzweig, "Information, Learning, and Wage Rates in Low-Income Rural Areas," Journal of Human Resources 28, no. 4 (1993): 759-90, and "A Test" (n. 11 above); H. Alderman, J. R. Behrman, D. R. Ross, and R. Sabot, "The Returns to Endogenous Human Capital in Pakistan's Rural Wage Labour Market," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics 58, no. 1 (1996): 29-55.
29. D. E. Sahn and H. Alderman, "The Effects of Human Capital on Wages and the Determinants of Labor Supply in a Developing Country," Journal of Development Economics 29, no. 2 (1988): 157-84; J. R. Behrman and A. B. Deolalikar, "Agricultural Wages in India: The Role of Health, Nutrition, and Seasonality," in Seasonal Variability in Third World Agriculture: The Consequences for Food Security, ed. D. E. Sahn (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989); L. J. Haddad and H. E. Bouis, "The Impact of Nutritional Status on Agricultural Productivity: Wage Evidence from the Philippines," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics 53, no. 1 (1991): 45-68; A. D. Foster and M. R. Rosenzweig, "Information, Learning, and Wage Rates in Low-Income Rural Areas," Journal of Human Resources 28, no. 4 (1993): 759-90, and "A Test" (n. 11 above); H. Alderman, J. R. Behrman, D. R. Ross, and R. Sabot, "The Returns to Endogenous Human Capital in Pakistan's Rural Wage Labour Market," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics 58, no. 1 (1996): 29-55.
30. D. E. Sahn and H. Alderman, "The Effects of Human Capital on Wages and the Determinants of Labor Supply in a Developing Country," Journal of Development Economics 29, no. 2 (1988): 157-84; J. R. Behrman and A. B. Deolalikar, "Agricultural Wages in India: The Role of Health, Nutrition, and Seasonality," in Seasonal Variability in Third World Agriculture: The Consequences for Food Security, ed. D. E. Sahn (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989); L. J. Haddad and H. E. Bouis, "The Impact of Nutritional Status on Agricultural Productivity: Wage Evidence from the Philippines," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics 53, no. 1 (1991): 45-68; A. D. Foster and M. R. Rosenzweig, "Information, Learning, and Wage Rates in Low-Income Rural Areas," Journal of Human Resources 28, no. 4 (1993): 759-90, and "A Test" (n. 11 above); H. Alderman, J. R. Behrman, D. R. Ross, and R. Sabot, "The Returns to Endogenous Human Capital in Pakistan's Rural Wage Labour Market," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics 58, no. 1 (1996): 29-55.
31. D. E. Sahn and H. Alderman, "The Effects of Human Capital on Wages and the Determinants of Labor Supply in a Developing Country," Journal of Development Economics 29, no. 2 (1988): 157-84; J. R. Behrman and A. B. Deolalikar, "Agricultural Wages in India: The Role of Health, Nutrition, and Seasonality," in Seasonal Variability in Third World Agriculture: The Consequences for Food Security, ed. D. E. Sahn (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989); L. J. Haddad and H. E. Bouis, "The Impact of Nutritional Status on Agricultural Productivity: Wage Evidence from the Philippines," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics 53, no. 1 (1991): 45-68; A. D. Foster and M. R. Rosenzweig, "Information, Learning, and Wage Rates in Low-Income Rural Areas," Journal of Human Resources 28, no. 4 (1993): 759-90, and "A Test" (n. 11 above); H. Alderman, J. R. Behrman, D. R. Ross, and R. Sabot, "The Returns to Endogenous Human Capital in Pakistan's Rural Wage Labour Market," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics 58, no. 1 (1996): 29-55.
32. D. E. Sahn and H. Alderman, "The Effects of Human Capital on Wages and the Determinants of Labor Supply in a Developing Country," Journal of Development Economics 29, no. 2 (1988): 157-84; J. R. Behrman and A. B. Deolalikar, "Agricultural Wages in India: The Role of Health, Nutrition, and Seasonality," in Seasonal Variability in Third World Agriculture: The Consequences for Food Security, ed. D. E. Sahn (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989); L. J. Haddad and H. E. Bouis, "The Impact of Nutritional Status on Agricultural Productivity: Wage Evidence from the Philippines," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics 53, no. 1 (1991): 45-68; A. D. Foster and M. R. Rosenzweig, "Information, Learning, and Wage Rates in Low-Income Rural Areas," Journal of Human Resources 28, no. 4 (1993): 759-90, and "A Test" (n. 11 above); H. Alderman, J. R. Behrman, D. R. Ross, and R. Sabot, "The Returns to Endogenous Human Capital in Pakistan's Rural Wage Labour Market," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics 58, no. 1 (1996): 29-55.
33. D. Thomas and J. Strauss, "Health and Wages: Evidence on Men and Women in Urban Brazil," Journal of Econometrics 77, no. 1 (1997): 159-85.
34. A. Bhargava, "Nutritional Status and the Allocation of Time in Rwan-dese Households," Journal of Econometrics 77, no. 1 (1997): 277-95.
35. Calories or other nutrient intakes are indeed linear transformations of consumption quantities that are themselves very much related to agricultural production because of high own-consumption rates.
36. Data about consumption, crops, anthropometric measures, health indicators, and socioeconomic characteristics were collected by the Department of Economics, Addis Ababa University, in collaboration with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the Center for the Study of African Economies, Oxford University. Funding was provided by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA). Although this survey is not statistically representative of the whole country, which explains differences in averages of the main variables with national aggregates, it covers a broad set of agricultural contexts throughout the country.
37. Seven of the sites that had been covered previously by the IFPRI in 1989 are located in drought-prone areas. In 1993, the Department of Economics, Addis Ababa University, identified broad regions and then selected eight addi-tional peasant associations (with the aim of providing a more balanced picture of the Ethiopian farming system) with the help of experts from the Ministry of Agriculture. For more details, see Department of Economics, "Ethiopian Rural Household Survey: Preliminary Report on the First Round" (Addis Ababa University, 1995, mimeographed).
38. Only households cultivating at least 0.2 hectares are included. The main cereals are teff, wheat, barley, maize, sorghum, and millet. The analysis covers sites in which ox-plow cultivation is practiced so as to focus on a specific technology. Every household plows its fields with the help of oxen, either owned by the household or borrowed through some arrangement. Since all households in selected sites share the same technology, there is no selection bias due to en-dogenous choice of techniques.
39. There are 1,477 households in the total sample. In the sites where oxplow cultivation of cereals is practiced, there are 1,113 households, of which 935 have a positive output. After deleting the missing values (mostly for anthropometric measures), and selecting family size >0 and land >0.2, we are left with 498 households. The remaining missing households were lost after drop-ping outliers and erroneous values of other variables.
40. A recent report by Kuawab Business Consultants and Development Studies Associates (DSA), Fertilizer Marketing Survey: Descriptive Analysis of the Findings (Addis Ababa: Kuawab Business Consultants and DSA, 1995), sponsored by USAID, reported fertilizer application rates of 51 kilograms per hectare in 1994, up from 38 and 35 kilograms per hectare in 1993 and 1992, respectively. These figures are based on a nationally representative sample.
41. The Ministry of Agriculture recommends the use of 100 kilograms per hectare of chemical fertilizer and 100 kilograms per hectare of urea, regardless of crop type or location. The vast majority of farmers, however, use only the former.
42. Not all nonagricultural activity will be caught by days worked off the farm. In particular, households may receive income from the sale of livestock or products derived from animals. Furthermore, female members of the household at times engage in producing tradeable goods (drinks, etc.) which supplement household income.
43. Because of too many missing values for household members, WFH for workers is not available.
44. Other self-reporting variables include whether or not the person can (a) stand up after sitting, (b) sweep the floor, (c) walk for 5 km, and (d) hoe a field for a morning. However, the histograms of all these variables are too concentrated to contain enough information for the estimation.
45. D. J. Aigner, C. A. K. Lovell, and P. Schmidt, "Formulation and Estimation of Stochastic Frontier Production Function Models," Journal of Econometrics 6, no. 1 (1977): 21-37; W. Meeusen and J. Van den Broeck, "Efficiency Estimation from Cobb-Douglas Production Functions with Composed Error," International Economic Review 18, no. 2 (1977): 435-44.
46. D. J. Aigner, C. A. K. Lovell, and P. Schmidt, "Formulation and Estimation of Stochastic Frontier Production Function Models," Journal of Econometrics 6, no. 1 (1977): 21-37; W. Meeusen and J. Van den Broeck, "Efficiency Estimation from Cobb-Douglas Production Functions with Composed Error," International Economic Review 18, no. 2 (1977): 435-44.
47. J. Richmond, "Estimating the Efficiency of Production," International Economic Review 15, no. 2 (1974): 515-21.
48. J. Jondrow, C. A. K. Lovell, I. S. Materov, and P. Schmidt, "On the Estimation of Technical Efficiency in the Standard Frontier Production Function Model," Journal of Econometrics 19, no. 1 (1982): 233-38.
49. R. E. Lopez, "Estimating Labour Supply and Production Decisions of Self-employed Farm Producers," European Economic Review 24, no. 1 (1984): 61-82.
50. D. Benjamin, "Household Composition, Labor Markets, and Labor Demand: Testing for Separation in Agricultural Household Models," Econometrica 60, no. 2 (1992): 287-322, uses Indonesian farm level data that do not reject separability, while Fafchamps and Quisumbing use rural household data from Pakistan and reject separability. Pitt and Rosenzweig (n. 14 above) argue that if labor can be hired as a substitute for family labor, then farm profits should be unaffected by farmer illness. They accept separability for their sample. J. R. Behrman, A. D. Foster, and M. R. Rosenzweig, "The Dynamics of Agricultural Production and the Calorie-Income Relationship: Evidence from Pakistan," Journal of Econometrics 77, no. 1 (1997): 187-207, find that planting-stage calorie consumption affects harvest time profit, which suggests that labor markets are not working efficiently at the harvest stage and, hence, that there is nonseparability. Finally, D. Shapiro, "Farm Size, Household Size and Composition, and Women's Contribution to Agricultural Production: Evidence from Zaire," Journal of Development Studies 27, no. 1 (1990): 1-21, reports that household composition affects cultivated farm area for a sample of households from Zaire.
51. D. Benjamin, "Household Composition, Labor Markets, and Labor Demand: Testing for Separation in Agricultural Household Models," Econometrica 60, no. 2 (1992): 287-322, uses Indonesian farm level data that do not reject separability, while Fafchamps and Quisumbing use rural household data from Pakistan and reject separability. Pitt and Rosenzweig (n. 14 above) argue that if labor can be hired as a substitute for family labor, then farm profits should be unaffected by farmer illness. They accept separability for their sample. J. R. Behrman, A. D. Foster, and M. R. Rosenzweig, "The Dynamics of Agricultural Production and the Calorie-Income Relationship: Evidence from Pakistan," Journal of Econometrics 77, no. 1 (1997): 187-207, find that planting-stage calorie consumption affects harvest time profit, which suggests that labor markets are not working efficiently at the harvest stage and, hence, that there is nonseparability. Finally, D. Shapiro, "Farm Size, Household Size and Composition, and Women's Contribution to Agricultural Production: Evidence from Zaire," Journal of Development Studies 27, no. 1 (1990): 1-21, reports that household composition affects cultivated farm area for a sample of households from Zaire.
52. D. Benjamin, "Household Composition, Labor Markets, and Labor Demand: Testing for Separation in Agricultural Household Models," Econometrica 60, no. 2 (1992): 287-322, uses Indonesian farm level data that do not reject separability, while Fafchamps and Quisumbing use rural household data from Pakistan and reject separability. Pitt and Rosenzweig (n. 14 above) argue that if labor can be hired as a substitute for family labor, then farm profits should be unaffected by farmer illness. They accept separability for their sample. J. R. Behrman, A. D. Foster, and M. R. Rosenzweig, "The Dynamics of Agricultural Production and the Calorie-Income Relationship: Evidence from Pakistan," Journal of Econometrics 77, no. 1 (1997): 187-207, find that planting-stage calorie consumption affects harvest time profit, which suggests that labor markets are not working efficiently at the harvest stage and, hence, that there is nonseparability. Finally, D. Shapiro, "Farm Size, Household Size and Composition, and Women's Contribution to Agricultural Production: Evidence from Zaire," Journal of Development Studies 27, no. 1 (1990): 1-21, reports that household composition affects cultivated farm area for a sample of households from Zaire.
53. Another potentially interesting human resource characteristic of these households is the education level of its members. However, information collected about education is crude in the first round of this survey. Preliminary regression results showed that the introduction of education variables led to quasicollinearity problems, as a result of the small sample size. We omit this variable from the final specification.
54. Oxen used for plowing or a measure of the value of oxen owned by the household were not included in the final analysis, as they were never significant. Since many households do not have oxen but do have access to oxen through a variety of arrangements, the number of oxen owned is not a meaningful measure of animal power.
55. In the case of a fixed sharing rule (the collective household model proposed by P. A. Chiappori, "Collective Labor Supply and Welfare," Journal of Political Economy 100, no. 3 [1992]: 437-67) and the absence of specific indi-vidual shocks, the nutrient intake of the household characterizes the average household nutritional status.
56. The results for the instrumental equations are not reproduced here but are available from us on request.
57. S. Yao, "The Determinants of Cereal Crop Productivity of the Peasant Farm Sector in Ethiopia, 1981-1987," Journal of International Development 8, no. 1 (1996): 69-82.
58. The BMI is significant for adult males in the Rabi season.
59. S. Weir and J. Knight, "Some Evidence on the Contribution of Education to Agriculture in Rural Ethiopia" (Centre for the Study of African Econo-mies, 1998, mimeographed). We report the more conservative estimate.
60. There were one and two extreme outliers for the COLS and the EXP models, respectively. This resulted in a TE estimate of greater than one in each case. Our procedure was to set these values to one.
61. S. B. Caudill, J. M. Ford, and D. M. Gropper, "Frontier Estimation and Firm Specific Inefficiency Measures in the Presence of Heteroscedasticity," Journal of Business and Economic Statistics 13, no. 1 (1995): 105-11; S. B. Caudill and J. M. Ford, "Biases in Frontier Estimation Due to Heteroscedasticity," Economics Letters 41, no. 1 (1993): 17-20.
62. S. B. Caudill, J. M. Ford, and D. M. Gropper, "Frontier Estimation and Firm Specific Inefficiency Measures in the Presence of Heteroscedasticity," Journal of Business and Economic Statistics 13, no. 1 (1995): 105-11; S. B. Caudill and J. M. Ford, "Biases in Frontier Estimation Due to Heteroscedasticity," Economics Letters 41, no. 1 (1993): 17-20.
63. C. Gouriéroux, A. Monfort, E. Renault, and A. Trognon, "Simulated Residuals," Journal of Econometrics 34, nos. 1-2 (1987): 201-52.
64. These estimates are not shown but can be obtained on request from us.
65. For example, if the translog is the true specification, error terms of the Cobb-Douglas specification implicitly include input variables whose values are specific to each household.
66. The final sample is concentrated in southern sites that, with the exception of Adele Keke and Domaa, were not used in the production functions. They are mainly enset, chat, and coffee-growing areas. The actual sites in the participation and wage equation were (peasant association name): Adele Keke, Imdibir, Adado, Garagodo, and Domaa. There are few observations for wage earners (in farming activities), and none of these observations was dropped. We constructed earnings by number of days worked (and not by piece). We do not know if the person worked for the same farmer or worked for different people for a number of days. Only overall days worked are recorded.
67. We first estimate a participation equation for off-farm agricultural labor, to assess the selectivity of the sample. The participation equations are not reported here, but are available from us. Independent variables include site dum-mies as well as AGE, AGESQ, DUED, FAMILY SIZE, and TOTLAND (total area cultivated).
68. See R. J. Willis, "Wage Determinants: A Survey and Reinterpretation of Human Capital Earnings Functions," in Handbook of Labour Economics, ed. O. Ashenfelter and R. Layard (Amsterdam: Elsevier Science, 1986).
69. The latter variables account for the higher productivity of workers with good nutritional status but also for how employers pay attention to health in the wage fixation. There is no way to disentangle these two components here.
70. The predictive equations for WFH and the BMI are available from us on request.
71. We use WFH to denote weight-for-height rather than N, as in the frontier production function equation, to emphasize that the two measures are different. In the former it is the particular individual's WFH, while in the latter it is the head of the household.
72. Including both WFH and height together is not possible, due to the high degree of collinearity.
73. Lee (n. 13 above); Thomas and Strauss, "Health and Wages" (n. 20 above); Deolalikar, "Nutrition and Labor Productivity" (n. 17 above); Behrman and Deolalikar, "Agricultural Wages in India" (n. 19 above).
74. Lee (n. 13 above); Thomas and Strauss, "Health and Wages" (n. 20 above); Deolalikar, "Nutrition and Labor Productivity" (n. 17 above); Behrman and Deolalikar, "Agricultural Wages in India" (n. 19 above).
75. Lee (n. 13 above); Thomas and Strauss, "Health and Wages" (n. 20 above); Deolalikar, "Nutrition and Labor Productivity" (n. 17 above); Behrman and Deolalikar, "Agricultural Wages in India" (n. 19 above).
76. Haddad and Bouis (n. 19 above); Thomas and Strauss, "Health and Wages."
77. I. J. Singh, L. Squire, and J. Strauss, eds., Agricultural Household Models: Extensions, Applications, and Policy (Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 1986).
78. A. de Janvry, M. Falchamps, and E. Sadoulet, "Peasant Household Behaviour with Markets: Some Paradoxes Explained," Economic Journal 101 (1991): 1400-17.
79. M. Eswaran and A. Kotwal, "A Theory of Two-Tier Labor Markets in Agrarian economics," American Economic Review 73, no. 1 (March 1985): 162-77.