Non-agricultural income, infrastructure and access to consumer goods in rural households in the northeast and south

Abstract: The objective of this article is to analyze the impact of non-farm income on infrastructure conditions and access to durable consumer goods for rural families in the Northeast and South of Brazil. For this purpose, microdata from the Household Sample Survey (PNAD) from 2002 to 2015 were used. The methodology consisted of the construction of an index of household infrastructure and access to consumer durables and of the estimation of a quantile regression to verify the effect of labor income on this index. The results showed that families who practice pluriactive and nonfarm activities had higher average incomes, compared to agricultural families. However, the impact of income on the variables analyzed was greater in the group of poorer rural families, regardless of the activity practiced and the region. In other words, pluriactive and nonfarm activities can contribute, at first, to promote significant changes in a context of precariousness. However, they are unable to generate enough income to contribute to structural changes in better equipped households.