characteristic often believed to limit modern input use. A number of studies find that lower levels of productivity and income among female headed households can be partially attributed to lower access to improved inputs (e.g., Djurfeldt, Djurfeldt, Lodin 2013; FAO 2011). Table 15 shows that, in the LSMS-ISA countries, male headed households are indeed statistically significantly more likely to use modern inputs across almost all countries and input types.

Table 16: Percent of households using each type of input by education level of household head

||Inor<br>|ganic fert<br>|ilizer<br>|Im<br>|proved se<br>|ed<br>|Ag<br>|ro-chemi<br>|cals<br>||Irrigation<br>||<br><br>|Mechaniz<br>equipme<br>|ed<br>nt<br>|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||No|Some|sig|No|Some|sig|No|Some|sig|No|Some|sig|No|Some|sig|
|Ethiopia|**61**|53|***|**23**|21||**37**|27|***|8|**10**||**71**|78||
|Malawi|**81**|67|***|**-**|-|-|**3**|2|***|<1|**<1**||**1**|<1|***|
|Niger|**22**|16|*|**4**|2||7|**8**||6|**7**||**80**|77||
|Nigeria|**44**|38|**|-|-|-|**34**|32||3|**5**|*|9|**10**||
|Tanzania|**20**|8|***|**-**|-|-|**15**|5|***|**4**|2|***|**18**|12|***|
|Uganda|**3**|2|**|**-**|-|-|**12**|5|***|3|**5**||**15**|8|***|
|_Average _|_39_|_31_|_-_|_14_|_12_|_-_|_18_|_13_|_-_|_5_|_6_|_-_|_32_|_37_|_-_|

Note: Education level split here by none (“no”) and anymore more than none (“some”), as defined by the CLSP project. These data are not yet available for Uganda 2010/11, so we use the variable for Uganda 2009/10 in its place. *, **, and *** denote that difference in mean between groups is statistically significant using t-values of 1.645, 1.96, and 2.58 respectively. The “average” row includes simple (unweighted) averages across the statistics reported at the country level.

The education level of the household head is another often-mentioned correlate with input use. We use the standardized household head education level classifications provided by the World Bank’s Comparative Living Standards Project (CLSP)<sup>16</sup> and further aggregate to “no education” and “any education” categories given differences in education systems and requirements across countries. Table 16 shows that household heads with no formal education are more likely to use modern inputs, with the strongest association around inorganic fertilizer use and weakest around irrigation. While still a correlation and not a causal relationship, this pattern runs strikingly contrary to what is typically hypothesized – that formal education status is a good proxy for human capital and therefore should be correlated with modern input use.

Table 17: Mean household size by users and non-users of each input type

||Inorg|anic fert|ilizer|Imp|roved se|ed|Agro|-chemi|cals|I|rrigation||M<br>e|echaniz<br>quipme|ed<br>nt|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||Not|||Not|||Not|||Not|||Not|||
||<br>use|Use|sig|<br>Use|Use|sig|<br>use|Use|sig|<br>use|Use|sig|<br>use|Use|sig|
|Ethiopia|4.9|**5.5**|***|5.1|**5.5**|***|5.1|**5.5**|***|5.2|**5.7**|***|4.6|**5.5**|***|
|Malawi|4.4|**4.8**|***|-|-|-|4.7|**5.3**|***|4.7|**5.6**|**|4.7|**6.1**|***|
|Niger|6.7|**7.1**||6.7|**7.5**||6.7|**7.1**||6.7|**7.8**|***|6.1|**6.9**|***|
|Nigeria|5.6|**6.8**|***|-|-|-|5.7|**6.9**|***|6.0|**6.9**|**|5.9|**7.7**|***|
|Tanzania|**5.5**|5.3||-|-|-|5.4|**5.6**||5.4|**5.6**||5.0|**7.4**|***|
|Uganda|5.2|**5.4**||-|-|-|5.1|**5.9**|**|5.2|**5.3**||5.1|**6.3**|***|
|_Average _|_5.4_|_5.8_|_-_|_5.9_|_6.5_|_-_|_5.5_|_6.1_|_-_|_5.5_|_6.2_|_-_|_5.2_|_6.7_|_-_|

Note: The household size variable comes from the CLSP project for all countries except Uganda where the data are not yet available (the consumption aggregate files contained this value for use instead). *, **, and *** denote that difference in mean between groups is statistically significant using t-values of 1.645, 1.96, and 2.58 respectively. The “average” row includes simple (unweighted) averages across the statistics reported at the country level.

> 16 For more information on the CLSP project, see: http://iresearch.worldbank.org/CLSP/index.aspx

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