This study examines the effect of non‐farm labour participation on poverty reduction in rural Mauritania. Farm households with more land and livestock participate to a greater extent in non‐farm activities compared with households with smaller land or cattle. We study poverty's relationship with non‐farm labour activities in terms of the incidence as well as the intensity and severity of poverty. The study is the first to highlight the contribution of the non‐agricultural sector in the reduction of poverty in the rural areas of Mauritania. We apply probit, propensity score matching and inverse probability weighting techniques to determine the signs and impacts of participation on poverty reduction. The results show that the probability of being poor is 5.9% lower among households that have at least one member participating in non‐farm activities compared with those only associated with the agriculture sector. Participation in non‐farm activities is associated with lower intensity and severity of poverty (3.6% and 1.9%, respectively). We find that surplus labour released by the agriculture sector is absorbed in the non‐farm economy. Income generation through diversification into non‐farm activities therefore seems to be an effective way to reduce poverty in rural areas.

中文翻译：

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毛里塔尼亚的非农业就业和减贫

本研究考察了非农业劳动力参与对毛里塔尼亚农村地区减贫的影响。与土地或牲畜较少的家庭相比，土地和牲畜较多的农户在更大程度上参与了非农业活动。我们根据贫困的发生率以及贫困的强度和严重性研究贫困与非农业劳动活动的关系。该研究是第一个强调非农业部门对减少毛里塔尼亚农村地区贫困的贡献的研究。我们应用概率，倾向得分匹配和逆概率加权技术来确定参与减贫的迹象和影响。结果表明，贫困的可能性为5。至少有一个成员参加非农业活动的家庭比仅与农业部门有联系的家庭低9％。参与非农业活动与贫困程度和严重程度降低有关（分别为3.6％和1.9％）。我们发现，农业部门释放的剩余劳动力被非农业经济吸收。因此，通过多样化发展为非农业活动来创造收入似乎是减少农村地区贫困的有效途径。