Description

This paper documents the structural transformation in employment that has taken place in
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) over the past 15 years. In contrast to Asian economies, where at
least half of the labor flows out of agriculture have gone into industry, in SSA, most of the
workers have ended up in the service sector, especially household enterprises. Rwanda has
been one of the stellar performers in SSA in terms of structural transformation with the
strongest movement of workers out of agriculture. Contrary to conventional wisdom, except
for the very top of the distribution of consumption in Rwanda, families in household
enterprises now consume as much as non-agricultural wage earners.

More publications in this series: Working Papers

More publications by: Alun H. Thomas