Rural Labour Mobility In Times Of Structural Transformation

This book examines essential issues and perspectives on rural labour, helping readers understand the changes that are currently taking place in the labour markets, especially with regard to migrants from rural to urban areas, their socio-economic conditions, factors contributing to such mobility and associated problems. Further, it addresses the question of why the socio-economic conditions of rural labour have not experienced measurable improvements. Presenting a collection of painstakingly researched essays that focus on both India and China, the book addresses these challenges with an explicit focus on safeguarding the interests of rural labour under the neoliberal dispensation. The research is based on primary survey data and analytical issues from selected Asian economies, especially from India. On the basis of the findings discussed, it subsequently suggests ways forward so as to improve the wellbeing of migrant households and put an end to distress migration. Lastly, the book convincingly argues that improving labour market outcomes, and more specifically, generating employment and providing alternative livelihood avenues, represents the most pressing challenge in rural areas.

Based on new evidence from in-depth field surveys, this book addresses the unique situation of countries that remain deeply engaged in agriculture, and proposes a set of policy orientations which could facilitate the process of rural change.

The process of economic development is characterized by substantial reallocations of resources across sectors. In this paper, we construct a multi-sector model in which there are barriers to the movement of labor from low-productivity traditional agriculture to modern sectors. With the barrier in place, we show that improvements in productivity in modern sectors (including agriculture) or reductions in transportation costs may lead to a rise in agricultural employment and through terms-oftrade effects may harm subsistence farmers if the traditional subsistence sector is larger than a critical level. This suggests that policy advice based on the earlier literature needs to be revised. Reducing barriers to mobility (through reductions in the cost of skill acquisition and institutional changes) and improving the productivity of subsistence farmers needs to precede policies designed to increase the productivity of modern sectors or decrease transportation costs.

"The migration of labor from rural to urban areas is an important part of the urbanization process in developing countries. Even though it has been the focus of abundant research over the past five decades, some key policy questions have not found clear answers yet. To what extent is internal migration a desirable phenomenon and under what circumstances? Should governments intervene and, if so, with what types of interventions? What should be their policy objectives? To shed light on these important issues, the authors survey the existing theoretical models and their conflicting policy implications and discuss the policies that may be justified based on recent relevant empirical studies. A key limitation is that much of the empirical literature does not provide structural tests of the theoretical models, but only provides partial findings that can support or invalidate intuitions and in that sense, support or invalidate the policy implications of the models. The authors' broad assessment of the literature is that migration can be beneficial or at least be turned into a beneficial phenomenon so that in general migration restrictions are not desirable. They also identify some data issues and research topics which merit further investigation. "--World Bank web site.

This study provides a comprehensive overview of Korea’s macroeconomic growth and structural change since World War II, and traces some of the roots of development to the colonial period. The authors explore in detail colonial development, changing national income patterns, relative price shifts, sources of aggregate growth, and sources of sectoral structural change, comparing them with other countries.

This report highlights that gender inequalities and women's subordination in India are caused by two formidable macro-structures: patriarchy and the exclusion of unpaid work from the macro-economy. Both these structures reinforce each other and negatively impact women's empowerment. Patriarchy imposes subordination on women and forces a disproportionately higher share of unpaid domestic services and unpaid care onto them. This is unfair and unjust - a violation of basic human rights. Other structures like race, religion, and caste cut across these main structures. The selected papers in this report show how patriarchy causes gender inequalities in all critical dimensions of women's life on the one hand, and how unpaid domestic services and unpaid care sustains the macro-economy and its growth on the other. The contributors discuss pathways to integrate unpaid work with the macro-economy such that the strength of patriarchy declines and at the same time gender equality is promoted. To put it differently, unless the structures are addressed by integrating unpaid work, inequalities cannot be addressed effectively. The report emphasizes that this is the only way to move to real macroeconomics. The papers have explored pathways to break these structures gradually to achieve gender equality and empower women. Though the path is challenging, it is feasible to reach the goal of pervasive gender equality.

The book focuses on Indonesia's most pressing labor market challenges and associated policy options to achieve higher and more inclusive economic growth. The challenges consist of creating jobs for and the skills in a youthful and increasingly better educated workforce, and raising the productivity of less-educated workers to meet the demands of the digital age. The book deals with a range of interrelated topics---the changing supply and demand for labor in relation to the shift of workers out of agriculture; urbanization and the growth of megacities; raising the quality of schooling for new jobs in the digital economy; and labor market policies to improve both labor standards and productivity.