1 Annual Conference of IARNIW in collaboration with Indian Statistical Institute, Platinum Jubilee Hall, ISI, Kolkata 15-16 March 2013 http://www.iarniw.org/index.htm Date: 16.3.2013 SESSION: III PAPERS ON POVERTY, WELL BEING AND LABOUR (PW) Chairman: Prof. Dipankar Coondoo Discussants: G C Manna, Prof P K Chaubey PW3 Dynamics of Rural Labour Markets: Evidence from Longitudinal Panel Data in India A Amarender Reddy This is author version archived in the official Institutional Repository of ICRISAT www.icrisat.org Dynamics of Rural Labour Markets: Evidence from Longitudinal Panel Data in India A Amarender Reddy Abstract Given the slow structural transformation of employment in rural areas in India, this paper tries to probe into the structural transformation in semi-arid tropics of India, by using high frequency longitudinal panel data from 1975 to 2010. The results show that, up to early 1980s, structural transformation was very slow and most of the workers dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods. Most of the workers are spent more days in self-employment in agriculture with very few days in paid work. Both men and women have more leisure time during the 1970s compared to early 2000s. However, from 2001 onwards, there has been an increase in non-farm employment opportunities in both self-employment and also paid work mostly for rural male, but most of the rural women remained in farm sector. Results also shows that even though education improves chances of getting higher remunerative employment, still rural labour markets are segmented based on social groups to