Using data from the 2005 Albania Living Standards Measurement Study (ALSMS05) survey, this article analyzes the overall impact of household nonfarm income-generating activities (RIGA) on agricultural expenditures as well as technical efficiency of rural farm households. We also differentiate the impact for subsistence and commercial farmers, who are in the top 25% of the distribution of value of annual agricultural sales. Our results show that on the whole, Albanian rural households utilize their nonfarm earnings not to invest in time-saving, efficiency-increasing technologies, but to move out of crop production. We derive similar findings when we try to estimate the same relation separately for commercial and subsistence farmers. However, for commercial farmers, we find a positive impact of household nonfarm earnings on livestock expenditures

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This paper investigates the impact of international migration on technical efficiency, resource allocation and income from agricultural production of family farming in Albania. The results suggest that migration is used by rural households as a pathway out of agriculture: migration is negatively associated with both labour and non-labour input allocation in agriculture, while no significant differences can be detected in terms of farm technical efficiency or agricultural income. Whether the rapid demographic changes in rural areas triggered by massive migration, possibly combined with propitious land and rural development policies, will ultimately produce the conditions for a more viable, high-return agriculture attracting larger investments remains to be seen.

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Many post-socialist countries have seen a decline in school enrollments, especially at the secondary level, and declines in average school attainment (Hertz, Meurs and Selcuk, 2009). The declines in enrollment rates may be temporary, but the effects may persist across generations, given the generally high correlation between parent and child educational outcomes.In this paper, we examine secondary schooling dynamics in Albania, where enrollment declines have occurred. We examine both demand-and supply-side factors which might underlie household-level enrollment decisions. Using Living Standard Measurement Surveys from 2003 and 2003, we fi nd that, as in other countries, parental education is a signifi cant predictor of secondary school enrollment, but we also fi nd that economic and social changes related to transition appear to play a role. Many of our fi ndings are line with other recent work on this topic, although some differ, suggesting that enrollment dynamics may be changing over time.