Narrow Results

This paper aims at examining the enterprises characteristic, business performance, and obstacles in doing business for food and agribusiness firms across rural and urban areas, based on World Bank’s Enterprises Survey data of 699 respondents. Chi-square test shows statistically significance difference in firms’ characteristics across the rural and urban regions. ANOVA reveals a significant difference in business performance. Similarly, perception about obstacles in doing business varies across the urban and rural firms. This study can be helpful for agribusiness managers and government policy makers in promoting region-based entrepreneurship in a focused manner.

According to the 2011 Census of India, around 55% of rural households do not access a private bathing facility. The research study examines whether a bathing space’s presence improves the quality of life of the women using it. The study was conducted in two Indian states, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal, where two private agencies had facilitated bathing spaces. 54 women were interviewed for the purpose of the study. Individual interviews were conducted to understand the perception of the women who had recent access to the bathing spaces. The research shows that women who have access to bathing space have perceived positive changes in their health. Because of access to a private and secluded area, they can carry out Menstrual Hygiene Management practices. Along with the health benefits, the women participants also perceived changes in their daily lives. While there were numerous benefits of the bathing space, the burden of filling water and maintaining the bathing spaces on women increased. The paper also tries to understand what are the reasons for not constructing a bathing space. Cultural norms, lack of land, lack of water and water connectivity, lack of awareness, and economic reasons came across as reasons for not constructing a bathing space in the study.

The labor force participation rate of women in India has decreased despite economic growth, which has limited the advancement of their rights unlike in most other countries. This paper examines the determinants of labor force participation by gender in rural and urban areas using a probit model with data from the India Human Development Survey (IHDS) for 2011–2012 to analyze the factors that restrict workforce participation. The estimation results are presented below. First, the marital status of males, both rural and urban, has a significant impact on their participation in the workforce due to family support. In contrast, females face multiple restrictions based on marital, caste and religion, demonstrating that sociocultural factors have limited their participation regardless of regional factors. Second, in rural areas, the educational years of female workers negatively affect labor participation, but the constraints of marriage are weaker than in urban areas. Women in lower castes participate more in the rural labor force, which is interpreted as a result of their livelihood in the industrial structure consisting of agriculture. On the other hand, the caste system negatively affects female participation in urban areas. Finally, these results indicate that the low-labor participation of females is the result of a complicated process influenced by various factors, including regional effects and patriarchal cultural values in India. Therefore, it is necessary to provide employment opportunities and encourage economic incentives for more women to enter the labor market spontaneously, considering regional effects in policies, in order for women to emerge as one group of social leaders.

Using the 2012 Bhutan Living Standard Survey, this paper finds that rural nonfarm activities comprise 60.7% of rural household income in Bhutan and this contribution increases with higher income and education levels. The poor and less educated participate less in the nonfarm sector. When they do, they are self-employed in petty nonfarm activities, which require little investment and little or no skills. Accounting for endogeneity and sample selection issues, we estimate the determinants of participation in nonfarm activities and nonfarm incomes. We find that a household's education and labor supply play an important role in accessing more remunerative nonfarm employment. Interestingly, we find that women play an important role in self-employment in nonfarm activities. Decomposition shows that nonfarm income has a disequalizing effect and farm income has an equalizing effect, indicating the need to increase the endowment of poor households to enable them to access the lucrative rural nonfarm sector. Further decomposition reveals that self-employment in petty nonfarm activities reduces inequality.