Alain de Janvry

Transactions Costs and Agricultural Household Supply Response

We develop and estimate a model of supply response when transactions costs create a situation where some producers buy, others sell, and others do not participate in markets. We present two rationales for why producing households may have different relationships to the market: proportional and fixed transactions costs. Using data on Mexican corn producers, we estimate an empirical model that allows for separate tests of the significance of both types of transactions costs, revealing that both fixed and proportional transactions costs matter for the estimation. The results provide consistent estimates of supply elasticity and measures of the relative importance of factors determining both proportional and fixed transactions costs.

The roles of destination, gender, and household composition in explaining remittances: an analysis for the Dominican Sierra

Two non-exclusive hypotheses about what motivates remittances sent by Dominican migrants to their rural parents in the Sierra are tested: (a) an insurance contract taken by parents with their migrant children and (b) an investment by migrants in potential bequests. Results show that the relative importance of these two motives to remit is affected by destination (US vs. cities in the Dominican Republic), gender, and household composition. The insurance function is mainly fulfilled by female migrants to the US. Only when a male is the sole migrant in his household does he play the role of insurer. Investment, by contrast, is pursued by both males and females, but only among those migrating to the US. D 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Attitudes Toward Risk Among Peasants: An Econometric Approach

Attitudes toward risk among peasants in Puebla, Mexico, are derived from survey data in a model of safety-first behavior. The measurements of behavior toward risk obtained are then explained by a set of socioeconomic and structural variables that characterize peasant households. Knowledge of the determinants of attitudes toward risk is, in tum, useful for the purpose of tailoring technological recommendations to particular categories of peasants.

The impact of farmer-field-schools on knowledge and productivity: a study of potato farmers in the Peruvian Andes

Using survey data from Peru, this article evaluates the impact of a pilot farmer‐field‐school (FFS) program on farmers’ knowledge of integrated pest management (IPM) practices related to potato cultivation. We use both regression analysis controlling for participation and a propensity score matching approach to create a comparison group similar to the FFS participants in observable characteristics. Results are robust across the two approaches as well as with different matching methods. We find that farmers who participate in the program have significantly more knowledge about IPM practices than those in the nonparticipant comparison group. We also find suggestive evidence that improved knowledge about IPM practices has the potential to significantly improve productivity in potato production.

Family and Community Networks in Mexico-U.S. Migration

A households decision to send migrants is based on information it has on the entry costs, expected returns, and risks of migration. Information and assistance flow from both family migrant networks and community migrant networks. Using data from a national survey of rural Mexican households, we show the importance of networks in both the decision to migrate and the level of migration. We find that community and family networks are substitutes in assisting migration, suggesting that, once migration is well established in a community, family networks become less important. In addition, the development of strong community networks erases the role of household characteristics in migration, allowing those initially least favored to also participate in migration. Finally, we show that network density at points of destination in the United States strongly affects where individuals choose to migrate.

Cash Transfer Programs with Income Multipliers: PROCAMPO in Mexico

Abstract Cash transfer programs create multiplier effects when recipients put the money they receive to work to generate further incomes. When this is the case, the ultimate income effects are multiples of the amounts transferred. We analyze the PROCAMPO program in Mexico that was introduced to compensate farmers for the anticipated negative effect of NAFTA on the prices of basic crops. The transfer rules and the timing of the panel data collected allow unique control of biases in this impact analysis. We find that the multiplier among ejido sector recipients is in the range 1.5–2.6. Multipliers are higher for households with medium and large farms, low numbers of adults in the household, nonindigenous backgrounds, and located in the Center and Gulf regions. High multipliers reflect income opportunities that had remained unrealized due to liquidity constraints that are relaxed by the transfers. Opportunities come from the asset endowments that these households received through the land reform, particularly irrigated land, and they are enhanced by access to technical assistance.

Rural poverty in Latin America: Determinants and exit paths

Abstract While rural poverty in Latin America has declined over the last three decades, success has been uneven across countries and rural poverty remains huge. Reduction in the number of rural relative to urban poor has been mainly the outcome of migration, not of successful rural development. We show that rural incomes are explained by the asset position of households and the characteristics of the context where assets are used. Given heterogeneity in asset positions and contexts, many strategies to escape poverty consequently exist. We identify four paths out of poverty: exit, agricultural, pluriactive, and assistance. Successful rural development to promote the agricultural and pluriactive paths requires a wholesale new approach based on regional development, decentralization and participation. Agricultural technology has a role to play in these two strategies. In Latin America, however, the bulk of the benefits from technological change has been captured through indirect effects via the price of food, employment creation and contributions to aggregate growth.

Household Behavior with Imperfect Labor Markets

A household model with differential asset endowments and idiosyncratic transactions costs in accessing labor markets is developed to (1) explain membership of farm households to alternative labor regimes (sellers, employers, or self-sufficient in labor), (2) test for recursivity between production and consumption decisions selectively by labor regime, and (3) identify the determinants of differential labor productivity across labor regimes. The model is applied to a 1994 household survey of the Mexican land reform sector. (Forthcoming in the Journal of Industrial Relations)

How Rising Competition Among Microfinance Institutions Affects Incumbent Lenders

This article uses data from Ugandas largest incumbent microfinance institution to analyse the impact of entry by competing lenders on client behaviour. We observe that rising competition does not lead to an increase in client dropout rate, but induces a decline in repayment performance and savings deposited with the incumbent, suggesting rising multiple loan-taking by clients. This joint effect on dropout and repayment is consistent with some negative information about clients and is being shared across lenders. However, the observed decline in repayment rates in a context of rising multiple loan-taking shows that information sharing about clients is far from complete.

A Conceptual Framework for the Empirical Analysis of Peasants

To assist in the design and analysis of the many empirical studies currently conducted on peasants and their changing status in third world countries, a conceptual framework is presented and illustrated with data from Cajamarca in Peru. The framework identifies the key variables to be measured and processes to be analyzed at three levels: the organization of the peasant household in terms of production, circulation, and reproduction; the mechanisms of surplus extraction; and the class position and differentiation of groups of peasants within particular social formations.