This file is part of IDEAS, which uses RePEc data


[ Papers | Articles | Software | Books | Chapters | Authors | Institutions | JEL Classification | NEP reports | Search | New papers by email | Author registration | Rankings | Volunteers | FAQ | Blog | Help! ]

Consumption Smoothing? Livestock, Insurance and Drought in Rural Burkina Faso

Author info | Abstract | Publisher info | Download info | Related research | Statistics
Author Info
Harounan Kazianga () (Columbia University)
Christopher Udry () (Yale University)

Additional information is available for the following registered author(s):

Abstract

This paper explores the extent of consumption smoothing between 1981 and 1985 in rural Burkina Faso. In particular, we examine the extent to which livestock, grain storage and interhousehold transfers are used to smooth consumption against income risk. The survey coincided with a period of severe drought, so that the results provide direct evidence on the effectiveness of these various insurance mechanisms when they are the most needed. We find evidence of little consumption smoothing. In particular, there is almost no risk sharing, and households rely almost exclusively on self-insurance in the form of adjustments to grain stocks to smooth out consumption. The outcome, however, is far from complete smoothing. Hence the main risk-coping strategies, which are hypothesized in the literature (risk sharing and buffer stock), were not effective during the survey period.

Download Info
To download:

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. Information about this may be contained in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.

File URL: http://www.econ.yale.edu/growth_pdf/cdp898.pdf
File Format: application/pdf
File Function:
Download Restriction: no

Publisher Info
Paper provided by Economic Growth Center, Yale University in its series Working Papers with number 898.

Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML (with abstract), plain text (with abstract), BibTeX, RIS (EndNote, RefMan, ProCite), ReDIF
Length: 45 pages
Date of creation: Nov 2004
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:egc:wpaper:898

Contact details of provider:
Postal: PO Box 8269, New Haven CT 06520-8269
Phone: (203) 432-3610
Fax: (203) 432-3898
Web page: http://www.econ.yale.edu/
More information through EDIRC

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (Louise Danishevsky).

Related research
Keywords: Livestock; consumption smoothing; permanent income hypothesis; precautionary saving; risk sharing;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:
D91 - Microeconomics - - Intertemporal Choice and Growth - - - Intertemporal Consumer Choice; Life Cycle Models and Saving
O16 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Financial Markets; Saving and Capital Investment

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Fafchamps, Marcel & Udry, Christopher & Czukas, Katherine, 1998. "Drought and saving in West Africa: are livestock a buffer stock?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 273-305, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Arellano, Manuel & Bond, Stephen, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 58(2), pages 277-97, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Martin Browning & Annamaria Lusardi, 1996. "Household Saving: Micro Theories and Micro Facts," Discussion Papers 96-01, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics.
    Other versions:
  4. Jalan, Jyotsna & Ravallion, Martin, 1997. "Are the poor less well-insured? Evidence on vulnerability to income risk in rural China," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1863, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Heckman, James J, 1974. "Shadow Prices, Market Wages, and Labor Supply," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 42(4), pages 679-94, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Blundell, Richard & Magnac, Thierry & Meghir, Costas, 1997. "Savings and Labor-Market Transitions," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 15(2), pages 153-64, April.
    Other versions:
  7. Strauss, John & Thomas, Duncan, 1995. "Human resources: Empirical modeling of household and family decisions," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Hollis Chenery† & T.N. Srinivasan (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 34, pages 1883-2023 Elsevier. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Carroll, Christopher D, 1997. "Buffer-Stock Saving and the Life Cycle/Permanent Income Hypothesis," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 112(1), pages 1-55, February.
    Other versions:
  9. Fafchamps, Marcel & Lund, Susan, 2003. "Risk-sharing networks in rural Philippines," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 261-287, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  10. Strauss, J. & Thomas, D., 1995. "Empirical Modeling of Household and Family Decisions," Papers 95-12, RAND - Reprint Series.
  11. Strauss, John, 1986. "Does Better Nutrition Raise Farm Productivity?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(2), pages 297-320, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Christopher D Carroll & Miles S Kimball, 2001. "Liquidity Constraints and Precautionary Saving," Economics Working Paper Archive 455, The Johns Hopkins University,Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  13. Zeldes, Stephen P, 1989. "Consumption and Liquidity Constraints: An Empirical Investigation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(2), pages 305-46, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  14. James Banks & Richard Blundell & Agar Brugiavini, 1999. "Risk pooling, precautionary saving and consumption growth," IFS Working Papers W99/19, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    Other versions:
  15. Luigi Pistaferri, 2001. "Superior Information, Income Shocks, And The Permanent Income Hypothesis," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 83(3), pages 465-476, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  16. Paxson, Christina H, 1992. "Using Weather Variability to Estimate the Response of Savings to Transitory Income in Thailand," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(1), pages 15-33, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  17. Hamish Low, 1999. "Self-insurance and unemployment benefit in a life-cycle model of labour supply and savings," IFS Working Papers W99/24, Institute for Fiscal Studies. [Downloadable!]
  18. Martin Ravallion & Shubham Chaudhuri, 1997. "Risk and Insurance in Village India: Comment," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(1), pages 171-184, January.
  19. Deaton, A. & Grosh, M., 1998. "Consumption," Papers 191, Princeton, Woodrow Wilson School - Development Studies.
  20. Browning, Martin & Meghir, Costas, 1991. "The Effects of Male and Female Labor Supply on Commodity Demands," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(4), pages 925-51, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  21. Townsend, Robert M, 1994. "Risk and Insurance in Village India," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 62(3), pages 539-91, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  22. Kinsey, Bill & Burger, Kees & Gunning, Jan Willem, 1998. "Coping with drought in Zimbabwe: Survey evidence on responses of rural households to risk," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 89-110, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Van den Berg, Marrit & Burger, Kees, 2008. "Household Consumption and Natural Disasters: The Case of Hurricane Mitch in Nicaragua," 2008 International Congress, August 26-29, 2008, Ghent, Belgium 44380, European Association of Agricultural Economists. [Downloadable!]
  2. Attila Ambrus & Markus Mobius & Adam Szeidl, 2007. "Consumption Risk-sharing in Social Networks," Economics Working Papers 0079, Institute for Advanced Study, School of Social Science. [Downloadable!]
  3. SAFIR Abla, 2008. "Receiving People or Sending Money : Differential Impact of Income Shocks on Migration and Transfers in Senegal," Research Unit Working Papers 0901, Laboratoire d'Economie Appliquee, INRA. [Downloadable!]
  4. Abla Safir, 2008. "Who leaves, who moves in? The impact of positive and negative income shocks on migration in Senegal," PSE Working Papers 2008-76, PSE (Ecole normale supérieure), revised Aug 2009. [Downloadable!]
  5. Adaman, Fikret & Ardic, Oya Pinar & Tuzemen, Didem, 2006. "Network Effects in Risk Sharing and Credit Market Access: Evidence from Istanbul," MPRA Paper 4078, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 01 Dec 2006. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. Korkeala, Outi & Newhouse, David & Duarte, Mafalda, 2009. "Distributional impact analysis of past climate variability in rural Indonesia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5070, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  7. Marijke Verpoorten, 2007. "Household Coping in war- and peacetime: cattle sales in Rwanda, 1991-2001," LICOS Discussion Papers 18907, LICOS - Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance, K.U.Leuven. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  8. Michael Grimm, 2008. "Food price inflation and schooling," Ibero America Institute for Econ. Research (IAI) Discussion Papers 174, Ibero-America Institute for Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
  9. Christiaensen, Luc & Hoffmann, Vivian & Sarris, Alexander, 2007. "Gauging the welfare effects of shocks in rural Tanzania," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4406, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  10. Asadul Islam & Pushkar Maitra, 2008. "Health Shocks And Consumption Smoothing In Rural Households: Does Microcredit Have A Role To Play?," Monash Economics Working Papers 22/08, Monash University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  11. Stefan Dercon & Luc Christiaensen, 2008. "Consumption risk, technology adoption and poverty traps: evidence from Ethiopia," WEF Working Papers 0035, ESRC World Economy and Finance Research Programme, Birkbeck, University of London. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  12. Tom Bundervoet & Philip Verwimp & Richard Akresh, 2008. "Health and Civil War in Rural Burundi," Research Working Papers 5, MICROCON - A Micro Level Analysis of Violent Conflict. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  13. Verma, Monika & Hertel, Thomas W., 2009. "Commodity price volatility and nutrition vulnerability:," IFPRI discussion papers 895, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
Statistics
Access and download statistics

Did you know? You can import bibliographic info in various formats into you bibliographic tool, or just into your word processor. See under "publisher info" on each abstract page.

This page was last updated on 2009-11-26.

This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Department of Economics, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Connecticut using RePEc data on a server sponsored by the Society for Economic Dynamics.