The Spatial Division of Labor in Nepal

By Marcel Fafchamps, Forhad Shilpi. 2002

177 citations recorded by the source corpus.

the authors examine how economic activity and market participation are distributed across space. Applying a nonparametric von Thunen model to Nepalese data, the authors uncover a strong spatial division of labor. Nonfarm employment is concentrated in and around cities, while agricultural wage employment dominates villages located further away. Vegetables are produced near urban centers. Paddy and commercial crops are more important at intermediate distances. Isolated villages revert to self-subsistence. The findings of the study are consistent with the von Thunen model of concentric specialization, corrected to account for city size. Spatial division of labor is closely related to factor endowments and household characteristics, especially at the local level.

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Citations in the corpus

Isolation and agricultural productivity (2008, background): “24 See Minten and Kyle (1999) on Zaire, and Fafchamps and Shilpi (2003) on Nepal.”
A Cross-Country Comparison of Rural Income Generating Activities (2010, background): “10 See Lanjouw and Lanjouw (2001) and Lanjouw and Feder (2001) for a general discussion relevant to nonfarm activities and Fafchamp and Shilpi (2003) for Nepal and Azzarri et al (2006) for Malawi, for example, regarding the role of agricultural wage labor.”
Migration and climate change: examining thresholds of change to guide effective adaptation decision-making (2010, background): “The out-migration from rural areas is both on permanent and on temporary bases, with a considerable number of people working seasonally as farm labourers ( Fafchamps and Shilpi 2003 ).”
Subjective Welfare, Isolation, and Relative Consumption (2008, unknown): “Using information compiled by Fafchamps and Shilpi (2003) on the road distance between each ward and each of 34 Nepalese towns, we construct a variable that represent the total urban population living within 2 h of travel distance from the ward.”