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Assets, Shocks, and Poverty Traps in Rural Mozambique

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  • Lena Giesbert

    ()

  • Kati Schindler

    ()

Abstract

Using a micro-level approach to poverty traps, this paper explores welfare dynamics among households in post-war rural Mozambique. Conceptually, the paper builds on an asset-based approach to poverty and tests empirically, with household panel data, for the existence of a poverty trap. Findings indicate that there is little differentiation in productive asset endow-ments over time and that rural households gravitate towards a single equilibrium, which is at a surprisingly low level. The analysis shows that shocks and household coping behavior help to explain the observed poverty dynamics. The single low-level equilibrium points to an overall development trap in the rural farm-based economy. This is attributed to the long-term impact of the civil war, which has consolidated unfavorable economic conditions in ru-ral areas and limited new economic opportunities outside of the agricultural sector.

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Paper provided by GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies in its series GIGA Working Paper Series with number 150.

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Length: 40
Date of creation: Nov 2010
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Handle: RePEc:gig:wpaper:150

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Related research

Keywords: poverty trap; shocks; asset-based approach; violent conflict; Mozambique;

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References

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  1. Brück, Tilman & Schindler, Kati, 2009. "Smallholder Land Access in Post-War Northern Mozambique," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 1379-1389, August.
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Cited by:
  1. Andy McKay & Emilie Perge, 2011. "How strong is the evidence for the existence of poverty traps? A multi country assessment," Working Paper Series 2511, Department of Economics, University of Sussex.

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