Paper short abstract:

Research on weather shocks has focused on the farm sector ignoring the non-farm sector. These shocks affect decisions on labour supply for men and women differently influenced by gender norms. Findings suggest that women are trapped in agriculture in patriarchal States, while men are unaffected.

Paper long abstract:

Distressing climate events such as droughts and floods are causing several untold hardships to many rural households in the developing world. Many research works have focused on the impact of weather shocks on the farm sector, but not on the non-farm sector of the rural economy. Employing climate data merged with georeferenced Nigeria General Household survey panel data and Afrobarometer data, the effects of rainfall shocks on off-farm labour supply; and the regional differences in gender norms’ influence on labour supply decisions in the face of rainfall shocks were determined. The findings show that households increase their labour supply to off-farm labour employment in response to excessive rainfall shocks, however, while it was positive and significant for female-headed households, it was not significant for male-headed households. No significant response for the deficit rainfall shocks for both male and female-headed households. Furthermore, we find suggestive evidence that in response to the excessive rainfall shocks, households decrease their labour supply to off-farm labour employment for patriarchal States (in favour of men). While this was the case for female-headed households, it was positive and insignificant for male-headed households. This could be indicative of women being trapped in agriculture when faced with weather shocks in patriarchal States, which could have welfare implications. Policies targeted at climatic shocks may need to consider the non-farm sector considering gender and regional differences.