The paper examines the effect of nonagricultural land use on agrarian organization and land reform, providing a simple model to determine its policy implications and some evidence on its importance. If land-rental market is imperfect, there is a role for redistributive policies which are more likely to enhance productivity in low-wage economies and should aim small farmers instead of landless people. Additionally, empirical evidence suggests this is a relevant issue in Brazil.

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This paper explores an empirical methodology to assess the impacts of trade reforms on household behavior in developing countries. The paper proposes a joint estimator of demand and wage price elasticities from survey data. The method overcomes problems of endogeneity of unit values and corrects biases in the estimation of demand elasticities. I apply the method to a rural survey in Mexico.

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We investigate the coexistence of formal and informal credit markets for financing of agriculture in the post-liberalization context of Peru. With a unique panel data set we show that conventional explanations are not sufficient to explain the situation and that the persistence of the informal sector is due to its provision of low risk contracts. The findings imply that gains anticipated from the liberalization of financial markets may be dampened unless insurance market failures are addressed.

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Using panel data, we investigate the micro determinants of sector participation and income growth of farmers in El Salvador. Income growth is primarily driven by off-farm employment. We find complementarities between rural investments (access to roads and education), households’ diversification strategies (shifts to non-farm employment, migration abroad), households’ observed and unobserved characteristics, and unobserved household heterogeneity (isolated via quantile regression panel models).

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This paper examines the determinants behind households’ decisions regarding resource extraction. Data from Chiapas is used to estimate labor allocated to xate palm extraction as well as Foster-Greer-Thorbecke poverty indices. Results show that individuals with low levels of human capital are more likely to extract xate than other individuals; the same is true for individuals from poor households. The poverty measures reflect the important role of xate extraction in terms of poverty alleviation.

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