Resource information
This paper employs decomposition methods
to analyze differences in agricultural productivity between
male and female land managers in Ethiopia. It employs data
from the 2011-2012 Ethiopian Rural Socioeconomic Survey. An
overall 23.4 percent gender differential in agricultural
productivity is estimated at the mean in favor of male land
managers, of which 10.1 percentage points are explained by
differences in land manager characteristics, land
attributes, and unequal access to resources (the endowment
effect). The remaining 13.4 percentage points are explained
by unequal returns to productive components, but cannot be
easily tied to specific covariates. These results are mainly
driven by non-married female managers (mainly single and
divorced). Married female managers do not display such
disadvantages. Further analysis along the productivity
distribution reveals that gender differentials are more
pronounced at mid-levels of productivity and that the share
of the gender gap explained by the endowment effect declines
as productivity increases. Detailed decomposition of
estimates at selected points of the agricultural
productivity distribution provides valuable information for
policy intervention purposes.
