684 Variables Agricultural production Size of per laborer cultivated land (mu) Total number of types of agricultural production involved Yield of rice (kg) per mu of land Yield of corn (kg) per mu of land Use of agricultural technologies Expense of farming chemicals per mu of land (RMB) Total number of traditional agricultural technologies used Total number of modern agricultural technologies used Household income, expenditure, and assets Per capita annual cash income (RMB) Per capita annual cash living expenditure (RMB) Household consumer asset index Resource use and management Proportion of firewood and crop residues in total fuels Total number of types of forest products used Total number of resource improvement activities taken Socio-demographic characteristics Years of residence Total number of household members Number of household laborers Average age of household laborers Average educational level of household laborers Table 3 Discriminant analysis of differences between labor-migrant and non-labor-migrant households, given as F values of variables Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 4 Model 5 Final model 6.86** 0.72 2.67(*) 0.02 7.81** 0.57 2.31 0.10 1.34 0.07 0.00 6.12* 0.61 2.72(*) 0.10 0.69 0.04 0.03 5.18* 0.55 1.65 5.25* 0.50 3.17(*) 0.09 0.54 0.04 0.01 5.56* 0.70 0.98 0.73 0.50 0.76 Hum Ecol (2010) 38:675–690 0.58 0.31 1.85 0.02 0.88 0.31 0.17 2.73(*) 0.17 4.19* 3.47(*) 0.28 0.08 5.85* 0.47 47.61*** 9.13** 2.65(*) 2.69(*) 3.70* 5.31* 3.99* 6.81** 64.70*** 10.83** 3.01(*) ***sig. at the .001 level; **sig. at the .01 level; *sig. at the .05 level; (*) marginally sig. at the .1 level farming chemicals per mu of land was also found to be statistically significant. Controlling for the effects of other variables in this model, farming households tended to spend the most money on fertilizers and plant pesticides per mu of farmland, followed by labor-migrant households and local off-farm work households in turn. In Model 3, the three rural income and consumption indicators were included as additional independent varia- bles in the discriminant model. The size of per laborer cultivated land and the expense of chemicals per mu of land remained statistically significant. Additionally, per capita annual cash income and the household consumer asset index were significant in differentiating household groups. Overall, farming households had substantially lower per capita rural income and fewer consumer assets than local off-farm work households and labor-migrant households, which had very close average values on these variables. Model 4 introduced measures of household natural resource use and management, none of which had a significant effect, but all the four significant variables in Model 3 retained their statistical significance. The yield of rice per mu of land also showed marginal significance in this model. On average, farming households had the highest production of rice per unit of farmland, followed by local off-farm work households, and labor-migrant households the least. Household socio-demographic characteristics were added to the analysis in Model 5. With their presence, per capita annual cash income and the yield of rice per mu of land were no longer statistically significant among the three household groups. The other three previously significant variables remained significant, but the effects of the size of per laborer cultivated land and the household consumer asset index were weaker than in the previous models. In addition, the proportion of firewood and crop residues in total fuels became marginally significant in the full model. Local off-farm work and labor-migrant households had similar levels of dependence on forest and crop residues for fuel, which were substantially lower than that of farming households. All the socio-demographic measures except household size were also found to be statistically signifi- cant. In general, labor-migrant households lived slightly longer than farming households in the village, while both of these two groups had much longer residence than the local off-farm work household group. Labor-migrant households on average had the largest labor force, followed in turn by local off-farm work households and farming households. In