ofarm.wp6



                   EDUCATION AND OFF-FARM WORK


                         Dennis Tao Yang


                           August 1995




ABSTRACT: A household time allocation model is developed to explain the empirical regularity that
the better educated farm members are usually the first to participate in nonfarm employment.  Central
to the model is the comparative advantage principle and a knowledge spillover hypothesis that workers
who participate in off-farm work may still contribute knowledge to farm management.  Using Chinese
farm data, it is found that (a) schooling does not contribute to physical efficiency in farming, (b) the
highest household schooling contributes the most to allocative efficiency and yet the contribution is not
affected by off-farm participation, and (c) education raises off-farm wages.  The model's implications
from these results are consistent with the observed patterns of time allocation.  ( JEL O15, J43)  


                          Copyright 1995





                             Paper 2


                     EDUCATION IN PRODUCTION:
             MEASURING LABOR QUALITY AND MANAGEMENT              



                         Dennis Tao Yang*



                           January 1995
                      Revised: October 1995 




ABSTRACT:  Production function studies have used the education of the head of the household
or the average education of farm workers to assess the contribution of schooling to farm
efficiency.  This paper  critically examines the information content of these measures by
developing a team production model which suggests separate education measures to approximate
labor quality and managerial skills.  Empirical analyses based on Chinese farm household data
show that the new measures are statistically superior to the existing alternatives.  There is
evidence of centralized decision making on the farms where the highest schooling contributes the
most to production efficiency.  (JEL O15, J43)





                             Paper 3



Food Availability, Entitlements and the Chinese Famine of 1959-1961


                         Justin Yifu Lin
Peking University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology,
                and Australian National University

                               and

                          Dennis T. Yang
                         Duke University
                                 


                            July 1995


                             Abstract

     The food availability decline and Sen's entitlement are two leading hypotheses for the
causation of famine.  Previous research based on case studies has given independent support to
each of the accounts.  This paper analyses the Chinese famine of 1959-61 by jointly considering
entitlement arrangement and declines in food availability as complementary causes. We found
that in the Chinese famine of 1959-61 both the food availability decline and entitlement
arrangement contributed significantly to the increase of death rates in the famine. However, the
differences in the entitlement arrangement were more important than the differences in food
availability for explaining the observed differences in death rates across provinces. (JEL I3, O5)


                               Copyright 1995