Determinants of nonfarm earnings of farm-based husbands and wives in Northern Ghana

The nonfarm work participation decisions of married men and women in rural Northern Ghana were jointly and separately estimated for married couples th rough a bivariate probit, using recent survey data. Selectivity bias was co rrected for in estimating wage offer and labor supply equations, using Heck man's procedure. Education, experience, infrastructure, distance to the cap ital, and population density, as well as interactions between education and infrastructure and between education and distance to the city, were found to be significantly related to the probability of nonfarm labor market part icipation, wages, and the amount of nonfarm labor performed, with significa nt differences by gender.