Utilization of Surplus Rural Labor in Developing Economies-A Flexible Spreadsheet Model

This article contains a model for the utilization of surplus rural labor, through partnerships between participating village families and businesses. The needs of participating families are treated in some detail, as are inducing the business investments. Also discussed is the political context. There is a suggestion that advantage might be taken of the extremely rapid changes, due to technology, in both the manufacturing and the design of products. Regarding design, there is now great emphasis on affordability e. g. products such as cookstoves. More important could be components for some of the remarkable new house designs. The model is embodied in a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet is parameterized for easy flexible use for testing various technical and behavioral assumptions.