households (Tiruneh et al. 2001). Nonetheless, the paper uses a very limited geographical sample for the study.

The data set used in this paper corresponds to the first wave of the Ethiopia Rural Socioeconomic Survey (ERSS) conducted in 2011-2012. This survey is representative at the national level and for the four largest regions (Amhara, Oromiya, SNNP and Tigray). The survey includes data from the post-planting and post-harvest periods of the main agricultural season.<sup>5</sup> Data are available at the field level. For each field, the survey asks the household to identify the person within the household in charge of the management and decision making of every piece of agricultural land (henceforth, the _manager_ ). This paper will analyze differences in productivity by gender of the manager.

The methodology followed in this paper employs decomposition methods. First, the traditional Oaxaca-Blinder technique (henceforth OB decomposition) employed in the gender wage gap literature is used to estimate: (i) the proportion of the gender productivity gap that results from differential characteristics of managers, land, and unequal access to productive inputs ( _endowment effect_ ); and (ii) the proportion that results from unequal returns to the previous components ( _structure effect_ ) (Oaxaca 1973; Blinder 1973). This method provides also a detailed decomposition, which is very useful from a policy perspective since it allows identifying the main drivers that explain the gender differences in productivity. Then, Recentered Influence Function (RIF) regressions proposed by Firpo et al. (2009) are used to identify differences of the previous results along the productivity distribution.

An overall gender difference in productivity of 23.4 percent favoring men is found, of which 10.1 percentage points (43 percent) corresponds to the endowment effect. On average, female managers manage smaller plots, use less non-labor inputs (e.g. livestock and tools), regularly spend less time in agricultural-related activities, are less likely to use rented fields to produce, and inhabit smaller households with lower average income. These components are the main contributors to explain the endowment effect. Regarding the structural effect, the main covariates that display unequal returns by manager's gender are the access to extension services, fields' distance to the household, agricultural non-labor input use (e.g. chemical fertilizer and livestock use), land characteristics (e.g. size and number of plots managed), product diversification, and years of schooling. Moreover, female managers are also 1 percentage point more likely to leave their land holdings fallow, even after controlling for manager, land and household’s characteristics.

A heterogeneity analysis by marital status shows that most of the difference results from the disadvantage among non-married female managers, who on average are 30.2 percent less productive than the average male. Most of this difference (80 percent) corresponds to the structural effect (i.e. remains after controlling for a set of covariates). Within non-married females, single females are the most disadvantaged, followed by those divorced.

The largest gender gaps are observed in the middle of the productivity distribution while we observe the lowest differences at the left extreme of the distribution. The proportion explained by the endowment effect peaks at the bottom of the distribution. Meanwhile, the middle and top of the distribution do not display a consistent trend in the endowment effects. At this part of the

> 5 There are two agricultural seasons in Ethiopia: the _Meher_ and _Belg._ The _Meher_ is the main crop season. Area cultivated and crop production in the _Meher_ season accounted for 92.1 percent of total area cultivated and 96.9 percent of total crop production during the 2007-2008 seasons (Taffesse et al. 2012).

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