Briefing Paper

Determinants of Rural Income in Tanzania : An Empirical Approach

“Despite many initiatives to reduce rural poverty in Tanzania in the last ten years, rural incomes have not improved significantly. Rural poverty remains a critical economic problem. To better inform rural policies and interventions, this study conducted an econometric analysis of data from the 2005 Tanzania Rural Investment Climate Survey to assess the impact of selected socio-economic and geographic factors on the income of rural households and communities. The analysis found that improvements in four variables had a significant positive impact on the incomes of rural households the level of education of the household head, size of household labour force, acreage of land use and ownership of a non-farm rural enterprise. The study also found that income was lower in female-headed households than male-headed households.”