Farm wage and Rice Price dynamics in Bangladesh

Empirical findings explaining the wage-price nexus in Bangladesh are diverse and conflicting. A proper understanding of the relationship between food prices and farm wages is essential for planning policies in support of the wellbeing and food security of the rural poor. In exploring the link between food prices and rising agricultural wages, this study analyzes the dynamic relations between those two by using monthly data from 1994 to 2014. A standard vector error correction model (VECM) is implemented to determine the short-run and long-run relationships between wages and food prices in eight divisions in Bangladesh. In addition, we use autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) models to estimate the pass-through coefficients and to compare the short-run effects of rice price and urban wage shocks on agricultural wages. We find statistical evidence for a structural break between January 2007 and January 2009 in the relationships of the variables in all divisions. Different to the period until 2007/2009, after the structural break, in six out of eight divisions, rice price shocks do not transmit to the farm wages in the short-run. Moreover, our findings show that in the long-run food prices have become less influential in explaining the changes in farm wages while the influence of urban wages has become stronger in some divisions.

AN ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECT OF SOME ECONOMIC VARIABLES ON THE STRUCTURE OF AGRICULTURAL EMPLOYMENT IN IRAQ FOR THE PERIOD 1990-2017

The research aimed at analyzing the structure of agricultural employment in Iraq as well as analyzing the current status of economic variables related to agricultural employment during the period 1990-2017, including the agricultural workforce, agricultural wages, agricultural investment and agricultural GDP. In the achievement of its objectives, the research relied on descriptive and quantitative analysis, as well as the use of some modern econometric methods in estimating models. The results using the ARDL methodology in the analysis indicate a long-term relationship between the volume of agricultural employment and each of the explanatory variables included in the model, which are (agricultural GDP, agricultural investments, agricultural wages and technological development). The research concluded that the negative effects of the policies pursued towards the agricultural sector to a large extent have been reflected on the size of the demand for agricultural employment and the productive efficiency of agricultural labor. The research recommended that investments should be directed to developing human resources, aiming to raise their efficiency, and encouraging the private sector to increase investments in various fields that would open new labor markets in order to accommodate the various types of unemployment that exist in the state’s economic structure.

Trends in agricultural and non-agricultural wages in Karnataka state

The present study attempts to analyse trends in growth in agricultural and nonagricultural labourer across the districts of Karnataka state. For the study secondary data of twentyfive years for the period from 1991 to 2015 was collected from the Directorate of Economics and statistics, Karnataka state. Growth rate of both male and female average daily wages are significantly positive, which indicated increasing wage trend in both dry land and irrigated conditions in different study districts. Compound annual growth rate of daily wages of male agricultural labourers in dry land and irrigated condition is comparatively high in Dharawad, Raichur and Hassan districts. The compound growth rates in wages across districts in dry and irrigated regions for female agricultural workers remained almost the same between 9.1 to 13.1 per cent. It could be, therefore, ascertained that there has been only a marginal changes in the wages across the districts of the state. Growth rate in daily wages for carpenter, blacksmith and mochis in different districts ranged between 7.2 per cent to 12.7 per cent per annum. Comparison of the growth rates of agricultural labourer and non-agricultural labourer, showed that agricultural wages grew at a faster rate than non-agricultural wages across the districts. The daily actual wages of both male and female agricultural labourer were compared with minimum wage price in the state revealed that, more than 75 per cent of districts in state are paying below the minimum wages announced for male agricultural labourer, whereas for female agricultural labourer in all the districts of the state showed less than minimum wages.

Agriculture

Cultivation of land engaged more than two-thirds of the employed population. Cultivated land increased by 50 per cent between 1860 and 1920. The opportunity to trade encouraged the trend. Whereas commercialization made many merchants rich, it improved the lives of peasants and landlords in only a few regions, and it left agricultural wages nearly stagnant. As the population increased, and few people could find good jobs outside the village, more people shared the poverty of the village. Why did the village produce more and yet stay poor? Why was growth so uneven? Why was growth low overall? Why did regions differ so much? Chapter 4 describes agricultural change over the period, 1858–1947, and answers these questions.