The effect of land access on youth employment and migration decisions: Evidence from rural Ethiopia

How does the amount of land that youth expect to inherit affect their migration and employment decisions? We explore this question in the context of rural Ethiopia using a 2014 cross-sectional dataset indicating whether or not youth household members from a previous 2010 survey had migrated by 2014,...

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Autores principales: Kosec, Katrina, Ghebru, Hosaena, Holtemeyer, Brian, Mueller, Valerie, Schmidt, Emily
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/145883
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author Kosec, Katrina
Ghebru, Hosaena
Holtemeyer, Brian
Mueller, Valerie
Schmidt, Emily
author_browse Ghebru, Hosaena
Holtemeyer, Brian
Kosec, Katrina
Mueller, Valerie
Schmidt, Emily
author_facet Kosec, Katrina
Ghebru, Hosaena
Holtemeyer, Brian
Mueller, Valerie
Schmidt, Emily
author_sort Kosec, Katrina
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description How does the amount of land that youth expect to inherit affect their migration and employment decisions? We explore this question in the context of rural Ethiopia using a 2014 cross-sectional dataset indicating whether or not youth household members from a previous 2010 survey had migrated by 2014, and in which sector they worked in 2014. We estimate a household fixed effects model and exploit exogenous variation in the timing of land redistributions to overcome endogenous household decisions about how much land to bequeath to descendants. We find that larger expected land inheritances significantly lower the likelihood of long-distance permanent migration and of permanent migration to urban areas. Inheriting more land also leads to a significantly higher likelihood of employment in agriculture and a lower likelihood of employment in the non-agricultural sector. Conversely, the decision to attend school is unaffected. These results appear to be most heavily-driven by males and by the older half of our youth sample. We also find suggestive evidence that several mediating factors matter. Land inheritance is a much stronger predictor of rural-to-urban permanent migration and non-agricultural-sector employment in areas with less vibrant land markets, in relatively remote areas (those far from major urban centers), and in areas with lower soil quality. Overall, these results affirm the importance of push factors in dictating occupation and migration decisions in Ethiopia.
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spelling CGSpace1458832025-02-24T06:45:53Z The effect of land access on youth employment and migration decisions: Evidence from rural Ethiopia Kosec, Katrina Ghebru, Hosaena Holtemeyer, Brian Mueller, Valerie Schmidt, Emily land access inheritance employment capacity development youth agriculture rural urban migration migration rural areas How does the amount of land that youth expect to inherit affect their migration and employment decisions? We explore this question in the context of rural Ethiopia using a 2014 cross-sectional dataset indicating whether or not youth household members from a previous 2010 survey had migrated by 2014, and in which sector they worked in 2014. We estimate a household fixed effects model and exploit exogenous variation in the timing of land redistributions to overcome endogenous household decisions about how much land to bequeath to descendants. We find that larger expected land inheritances significantly lower the likelihood of long-distance permanent migration and of permanent migration to urban areas. Inheriting more land also leads to a significantly higher likelihood of employment in agriculture and a lower likelihood of employment in the non-agricultural sector. Conversely, the decision to attend school is unaffected. These results appear to be most heavily-driven by males and by the older half of our youth sample. We also find suggestive evidence that several mediating factors matter. Land inheritance is a much stronger predictor of rural-to-urban permanent migration and non-agricultural-sector employment in areas with less vibrant land markets, in relatively remote areas (those far from major urban centers), and in areas with lower soil quality. Overall, these results affirm the importance of push factors in dictating occupation and migration decisions in Ethiopia. 2018-01-08 2024-06-21T09:05:16Z 2024-06-21T09:05:16Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/145883 en https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148410 https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148411 Open Access Oxford University Press Kosec, Katrina; Ghebru, Hosaena; Holtemeyer, Brian; Mueller, Valerie; and Schmidt, Emily. 2018. The effect of land access on youth employment and migration decisions: Evidence from rural Ethiopia. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 100(3): 931-954. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajae/aax087
spellingShingle land access
inheritance
employment
capacity development
youth
agriculture
rural urban migration
migration
rural areas
Kosec, Katrina
Ghebru, Hosaena
Holtemeyer, Brian
Mueller, Valerie
Schmidt, Emily
The effect of land access on youth employment and migration decisions: Evidence from rural Ethiopia
title The effect of land access on youth employment and migration decisions: Evidence from rural Ethiopia
title_full The effect of land access on youth employment and migration decisions: Evidence from rural Ethiopia
title_fullStr The effect of land access on youth employment and migration decisions: Evidence from rural Ethiopia
title_full_unstemmed The effect of land access on youth employment and migration decisions: Evidence from rural Ethiopia
title_short The effect of land access on youth employment and migration decisions: Evidence from rural Ethiopia
title_sort effect of land access on youth employment and migration decisions evidence from rural ethiopia
topic land access
inheritance
employment
capacity development
youth
agriculture
rural urban migration
migration
rural areas
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/145883
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