Who Helps? Household Change and Its Consequences for the Rice Harvest

Barbara Entwisle, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Jeffrey Edmeades, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Katherine Faust, University of California at Irvine
Ronald R. Rindfuss, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

This paper investigates the hypothesis that help received with the rice harvest in Nang Rong, Thailand depends on household size, composition, and change. Data to test this hypothesis come from linked surveys conducted in 1984 and 1994. The dependent variable is categorical: whether the household received help with the rice harvest at the latter date, and if so, whether from inside or outside the village. The effects of household size in 1984 and components of change between 1984 and 1994 are examined, controlling other determinants of help. Distinctions are then made between male and female members of the original household. Finally, size and change are decomposed to take marital status into account. The findings suggest that ties of help and support between households are created, in part, through the mobility of original household members and, further, that these processes depend on the gender and marital status of those moving out.