Dynamics of Off-farm Employment in Sub-Saharan Africa

Off-farm income constitutes a significant share of the household livelihood portfolios across Sub-Saharan Africa. Yet, the determinants of and dynamics in individuals participation in off-farm activities have not received adequate attention due to the broader weaknesses in individual-level data collection and the lack of longitudinal studies that track individuals over time. This paper uses national panel survey data from Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda; provides recent empirical evidence on off-farm employment participation rates; and analyzes the drivers of entry into employment and continued employment. The analysis is conducted across gender, and across rural and urban areas. A significant share of the population participates in employment. Men participate in wage and self-employment to a greater extent compared to women across time as well as within and across countries, with the exception of women s rural non-farm entrepreneurship being more common in Ethiopia and Nigeria. The participation shares are static over time, with only marginal increases in Malawi and Tanzania. However, a substantial share enters and exits employment over time, pointing to the dynamic nature of employment. Drivers of entry into employment and continued employment are country-specific, with initial asset holdings, occurrence of shocks and social factors as most important determinants. Acknowledgement : We gratefully acknowledge funding from the Research Foundation - Flanders and the World Bank Living Standards Measurement Study - Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA)