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This article addresses processes of livelihood diversification among pastoralists in the rangelands of northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia. The objectives of the article are threefold: (1) to suggest a theoretical framework for addressing income diversification among pastoralists with reference to current literature and databases; (2) to present a case study on pastoral income diversification based on preliminary field research in northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia; and (3) to summarize current understandings of pastoral diversification while pointing to additional empirical research needs. By showing how comparative analyses in the region have been constrained by theoretical and data deficiencies, the article explores ways in which income diversification differs by what are termed conditional, opportunity, and local response variables. Climate, distance to market towns, gender, wealth, and education are attributes covered by these variables and discussed in the article. The conceptualization and case study provide useful bases for conducting comparative research on pastoral diversification in East Africa specifically, and in sub-Saharan Africa generally.

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We show analytically and empirically that non-classical measurement errors (NCME) in the two key variables in a hypothesized relationship can bias the estimated relationship between them in any direction. Furthermore, if these measurement errors are correlated, correcting for either NCME alone can aggravate bias in the parameter estimate of interest relative to ignoring mismeasurement in both variables, a 'second best' result with implications for a broad class of economic phenomena of policy interest. We use numerical simulation to illustrate the parameter space over which a second best approach of not correcting one variable's NCME dominates correcting it. We then illustrate these results empirically by demonstrating the implications of mismeasured agricultural output and plot size for the long-debated (inverse) relationship between size and productivity. Our data from Ethiopia show large discrepancies between farmer self-reported and directly measured values of crop output and plot size. These NCME are strongly, negatively correlated with the true variable values and strongly, positively correlated with one another. In these data, correlated NCME generate a strong but largely spurious estimated inverse size-productivity relationship. And in line with our analytical result, correcting for just one source of NCME aggravates the bias in the parameter estimate of interest. JEL Codes: C81, O12, Q12, Q15