Editing Cycle rickshaw (section)

===Economics===
[[File:三轮车.JPG|thumb|upright|right|Modern cycle rickshaw in Beijing Street]]
In many Asian cities where they are widely used, cycle rickshaw driving provides essential employment for recent [[immigration|immigrants]] from rural areas, generally impoverished men. One study in [[Bangladesh]] showed that cycle rickshaw driving was connected with some increases in income for poor agricultural labourers who moved to urban areas, but that the extreme physical demands of the job meant that these benefits decreased for long-term drivers.<ref name="begum2005">Begum, Sharifa and Binayak Sen (2005). Pulling rickshaws in the city of [[Dhaka]]: a way out of poverty? ''Environment and Urbanization'' 17(2):11-25.</ref> In [[Jakarta]], most cycle rickshaw drivers in the 1980s were former [[landlessness|landless]] agricultural labourers from rural areas of [[Java (island)|Java]].<ref name="azuma2003">Azuma, Yoshifumi (2003). ''Urban peasants: beca drivers in Jakarta''. Jakarta: Pustaka Sinar Harapan.</ref>

In 2003, Dhaka cycle rickshaw drivers earned an estimated average of [[Bangladeshi taka|Tk]] 143 ([[United States dollar|US$]]2.38) per day, of which they paid about Tk 50 (US$0.80) to rent the cycle rickshaw for a day. Older, long-term drivers earned substantially less.<ref name="begum2005"/> A 1988–89 survey found that Jakarta drivers earned a daily average of [[Indonesian rupiah|Rp.]] 2722 (US$1.57).<ref name="azuma2003"/> These wages, while widely considered very low for such physically demanding work, do in some situations compare favourably to jobs available to unskilled workers.<ref name="gallagher1992">Gallagher, Rob (1992). ''The rickshaws of Bangladesh''. Dhaka: The University Press Limited.</ref>

In many cities, most drivers do not own their own cycle rickshaws; instead, they rent them from their owners, some of whom own many cycle rickshaws. Driver-ownership rates vary widely.  In [[Delhi]], a 1980 study found only one per cent of drivers owned their vehicles, but ownership rates in several other Indian cities were much higher, including fifteen per cent in [[Hyderabad, India|Hyderabad]] and twenty-two per cent in [[Faridabad]]. A 1977 study in [[Chiang Mai]], Thailand found that 44% of cycle rickshaw drivers were owners. In Bangladesh, driver-ownership is usually highest in rural areas and lowest in the larger cities. Most cycle rickshaws in that country are owned by individuals who have only one or two of them, but some owners in the largest cities own several hundred.<ref name="gallagher1992"/>