Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Shekhar Shah for inviting us to work with him on nonfarm development, for his encouragement and many helpful comments. This paper is part of the project in the South Asia Department to increase understanding of the nonfarm sector in Bangladesh. Sona Varma, other members of the South Asia Department, Shahidur Khandker and researchers in the Bangladesh Institute of Development Economics provided information and guidance.

We are grateful to Ilyse Zable for editorial assistance and to Sushma Rajan for just-in-time high quality production.