We study how rural households in Ethiopia adapt to droughts through labour reallocation. Using three waves of panel data and exploiting spatio-temporal variations in drought exposure, we find that households reduce on-farm work and increase off-farm self-employment in response to both short-term and persistent droughts, without abandoning family farming. Diversification into off-farm activities is driven by drought-related productivity declines in agriculture and contributes to consumption smoothing and food security. Households with better access to financial services are more likely to reallocate labour off-farm. Our results highlight the importance of strengthening the rural non-farm economy to enhance rural households’ climate resilience.

中文翻译：

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非洲农村地区的干旱冲击和劳动力重新分配：来自埃塞俄比亚的证据


我们研究埃塞俄比亚的农村家庭如何通过劳动力重新分配来适应干旱。利用三波面板数据并利用干旱暴露的时空变化，我们发现，为了应对短期和持续干旱，家庭减少了农业工作并增加了非农自营职业，但没有放弃家庭农业。与干旱相关的农业生产力下降推动了非农活动的多样化，并有助于平滑消费和粮食安全。能够更好地获得金融服务的家庭更有可能将劳动力重新分配到非农业领域。我们的研究结果凸显了加强农村非农经济对于增强农户气候适应能力的重要性。