Determinants of Livelihood Diversification among Households in the Sub-Saharan Town of Merawi, Ethiopia

Table 1

Study variables, multinomial logit model, and hypothesis.

Variable name	Variable type	Definition and unit of measurement	Expected outcome
Dependent variables
No diversification	Categorical	Study reference category and D = 1
Moderately diversified	Categorical	Level of livelihood diversification lies between 1 and 2
Highly diversified	Categorical	Level of livelihood diversification is greater than 2
Independent variables
Age of the household head	Categorical	Age of the household head in years by range 1, 2, 3, …	+
Educational level of the household head	Categorical	Number of years of formal schooling the household head attended	+
Total family size	Continuous	Total number of household members takes the value of 1, 2, 3, ….	+
Dependency ratio	Continuous	(˂15+ >64)/(15–64) age differences	−
Sex of the household head	Dummy	Sex was assigned as 1 if the head is male and 2 otherwise.	−
Total livestock possession/ownership	Continuous	It was measured by tropical livestock unit (TLU size of livestock owned by HHHs)	+
Access to agricultural extension	Dummy	1, if a household has access, and 2, otherwise	+
Access to credit	Dummy	1, if a household has access, and 2, otherwise	+
Land owned	Continuous	Total land size owned by the household in hectares	−
Membership to cooperatives	Dummy	1, if a household participates in cooperatives, and 2, otherwise	+
Income from irrigation	Continuous	It was measured by numbers as total income	+
Religion of the household head	Categorical	1 for orthodox Christian, 2 for Muslim, and 3 otherwise	−
Access to improved seeds	Dummy	1, if a household used improved seeds, and 2, otherwise	+
Access to improved fertilizers	Dummy	1, if a household used fertilizers, and 2, otherwise	+
Annual cash income	Continuous	Total amount of annual cash income the household had received	+
Training	Dummy	1, if the household has taken livelihood skills development training, and 2, otherwise	+
Distance to markets	Continuous	Measured by hours	−
Price fluctuation problem	Dummy	1, if the household had faced price fluctuation problem, and 2, otherwise	−

Source: authors’ compilation based on the studies by Enyew and Bekele [11], Dirribsa and Tassew [15], Yizengaw [14], and Gebru et al. [28].