Resource information
This paper hypothesizes that labor and
credit market imperfections—by discouraging off-farm
income-generating activities and restricting access to
inputs, respectively—affect female farm productivity more
deeply than male productivity. The paper develops a
theoretical model that decomposes the contribution of
various market imperfections to the gender productivity gap.
The paper shows empirically that agricultural labor
productivity is on average 44 percent lower on plots managed
by female heads of household than on those managed by male
heads. Thirty-four percent of this gap is explained by
differences in labor market access and 29 percent by
differences in credit access.
