Agricultural labour exchange teams are an informal labour-sharing arrangement by which individuals work together to cultivate plots of land that they each own individually, taking turns on different plots. This arrangement has a twofold positive effect on rural labour markets: they increase the likelihood of workers of being hired for paid work and reduce supervision costs for employers. We obtain this result thanks to specific data we collected in the Kagera region (northwestern Tanzania) and explain the mechanisms with a theoretical model. In this context, only women constitute teams, which are thus an instrument for female empowerment.
STEG Project Policy Brief
• Research Theme 0: Data, Measurement, and Conceptual Framing,
Research Theme 2: Labour, Home Production, and Structural Transformation at the Level of the Household,
Cross-Cutting Issue 1: Gender,
Cross-Cutting Issue 3: Inequality and Inclusion
Labour Exchange Groups in Rural Tanzania: Can They Foster Development and Women’s Empowerment?
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