1. Joint work with Menusch Khadjavi and Rainer Thiele
Market Exposure Raises Smallholders’ Competitive Behaviour and Closes the Gender Gap
Kacana Sipangule
Kiel Institute for the World Economy and the University of Goettingen, Germany
Joint work with Menusch Khadjavi and Rainer Thiele
World Bank Land and Poverty Conference
Washington DC, USA
March 22, 2017

2. Motivation
Competitiveness is a key component for success in modern economies
For instance, farmers compete for access to the best markets, employees compete for positions, scholars compete to have papers accepted at conference.
Competitiveness is driven through
Parental Influence (Almas et al., 2015; Khadjavi and Nicklisch, 2015)
Societal Arrangements (Gneezy et al., 2003; Gneezy et al., 2009; Leibbrandt et al., 2013)
However: Most societal arrangements occur endogenously and over a long time horizon. This makes it difficult to identify causal effects

3. vs This paper Research question
Investigates how a rapid change in societal arrangements affects competitiveness.
Research question
How is smallholder competitiveness affected by rapid market integration via competitive large scale farms? vs

4. Research methods
Measures of competitiveness based on Gneezy et al. (2009)’s Tossing experiment.
Data collected from 932 adults and 410 children in 29 villages in Mumbwa and Mkushi Districts
Data collection in August and September 2015
Experimental data complemented with Household and community surveys

5. Study design
Random selection of villages in Mumbwa and Mkushi districts using maps from the Zambian Central Statistical Office
13 near (<15 km) and 16 (50-70 km) further villages.
Minimum of 20 participants per village

6. Study site: Mumbwa district
6 _near villages
8 _further villages

7. Study site: Mkushi district
7 _near villages
8 _further villages

8. Procedures: Randomisation
Smallholders randomly assigned into two separate groups for controlled, anonymous decision making

9. Procedures: Competitive decision
Decision to compete in ball tossing task against another anonymous village member or not.
OPTION A
(no competition, piece-rate)
OPTION B
(competition + piece-rate)
Every successful toss earns K5, independent from the score of the matched village member
If higher score than match in village, then every successful toss earns K15
If equal score, then similar payments as in option A (K5)
If lower score, then zero payment in this task

10. Asked to make tosses in isolation from other group members
Procedures: Task
Asked to make tosses in isolation from other group members

11. Result 1: No difference in scoring success between _near and _further villages.

12. Result 2: Smallholders in near villages behave more competitively

13. Result 2: Smallholders in near villages behave more competitively
Independent Variable
Competitive choice
 (yes=1)
_near villages
(dummy, 1 = yes)
0.093**
(0.042)
0.094**
(0.040)
Crop sale
0.124**
(0.051)
0.122**
(0.050)
Male
0.031
(0.044)
Household Head
0.025
(0.045)
Age in years
(continuous)
-0.000
(0.001)
… further control variables & robustness checks… …
Constant
-0.498**
(0.194)
-0.387
(0.352)
Observations
842
832

14. Result 3: Smallholders selling on the market behave more competitively
Independent Variable
Competitive choice
 (yes=1)
_near villages
(dummy, 1 = yes)
0.093**
(0.042)
0.094**
(0.040)
Crop sale
0.124**
(0.051)
0.122**
(0.050)
Male
0.031
(0.044)
Household Head
0.025
(0.045)
Age in years
(continuous)
-0.000
(0.001)
… further control variables & robustness checks… …
Constant
-0.498**
(0.194)
-0.387
(0.352)
Observations
842
832

15. Result 4: Females in near villages behave more competitively

16. Result 5: Girls in near villages behave more competitively

17. Conclusion
Market exposure through proximity to large scale farms and through crop sales increases competitive behavior of smallholders.
This increase is especially pronounced for females, where the gender gap is non-existent in near villages.
Increased competitiveness can have important implications for smallholder market participation and educational performance of children however other developmental constraints will also have to be relaxed.