Rural livelihood diversification and youth migration have potential impacts on Sri Lankan agricultural sector. Therefore, this study was designed to assess the impact of land access on rural youths’ choice of livelihood and their choice of migration. A nationally representative sample of rural youth was isolated and a multinomial logit model under random utility framework was estimated to assess the livelihood diversification. A probit model of migration outcome was estimated to assess the rural youth’s choice of migration in lieu of land access. Results revealed that land access is strongly associated with the livelihood choices of agriculture and urban salaried employment of rural youth. Being a female youth makes the choice of livelihood less likely to be in agriculture. Education acts as an upward driver in choosing urban salaried employment while educated youth tend not to choose agriculture. The tendency to migrate reduces with increased access to land. Therefore, land access is a crucial factor for rural youth to choose agricultural livelihoods alongside rural youth not to be migrated.
Using a nationally representative data set, this study examines the impact of migrant remittances on expenditure pattern and intra-household decision making process of rural households in Sri Lanka. The impact was estimated using fractional logit models within the Engel curve framework. Estimating the fractional logit models, we find evidence that there are strong differences in the impact on expenditure patterns of male and female household heads with the receipt of internal remittances whereas effect of international remittances on changing the expenditure pattern and the intra-household resource allocation is negligible. More specifically male household heads allocate less on education and more on ad hoc purchases, entertainment and transport expenditure, while female household heads allocate more on food expenditure with the receipt of internal remittances. Moreover, remitters' contribution for the ad hoc purchases, entertainment and transport expenditure increases with their presence as a migrant to the household head. Overall, the study concludes that remittances are not directed towards the productive investments or human capital formation with the receipt of remittances in male headed or female headed households of rural sector of Sri Lanka.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.