This study analyses the determinants of off-farm work participation decisions of farm households in Ethiopia. A bivariate probit model is applied to account for the simultaneity of participation decisions of both male and female members of farm households. The results of the analysis show that human capital variables such as health and training on non-farm activities have a positive effect on the off-farm participation decisions of male members of farm households.

The Environment for Development initiative started in 2007 and this is the report for the first three-year period.

EfD is an initiative to support environmental economics capacity to conduct research, academic training and policy outreach.

The six EfD centers are expected to make a difference by contributing to better environmental management and thereby reducing poverty in developing countries.

The authors looked at risk and ambiguity attitudes among Ethiopian peasants in one of the poorest regions of the world and compared their attitudes to a standard Western university student sample elicited by the same decision task.

Strong risk aversion and ambiguity aversion were found with the Ethiopian peasants, and these attitudes are similar to those of the university students. Testing for the effect of socioeconomic variables on uncertainty attitudes showed that poor health increased both risk and ambiguity aversion.

The authors investigated attitudes toward positionality among rural farmers in northern Ethiopia, using a tailored two-part survey experiment. On average, they found positional concerns neither in income per se, nor in income from aid projects among the farmers. These results support the claim that positional concerns are correlated with absolute level of income of a country.

Trees have both economic and ecological purposes in rural Ethiopia, supplying households with wood products for consumption and sale, and decreasing soil degradation.

A new EfD/RFF Book titled "Land Reforms in Asia and Africa - Impacts on Poverty and Natural Resource Management" is planned for 2012. Editors are Professors Stein Holden and Keijiro Otsuka.

The research project on land reforms is ongoing, and a first book workshop was held on Jan 24-25, 2010, at Peking University.