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A capability approach to the analysis of rural households' wellbeing in Nigeria

Author

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  • Oni, Omobowale A.
  • Adepoju, Temitayo A.

Abstract

Rural households in Nigeria have been characterized as poor, and with little opportunity for development. Many studies have equated poverty with well being, however empirical literature on well being is less researched. This paper attempts bridge the knowledge gap in the empirical literature of well being studies and specifically the use of the capability approach in its application in the Nigerian well being context which is not as well researched as poverty studies. The study made use of the Nigerian Core welfare indices survey questionnaires of 2006 to provide data relevant to capability well being dimensions. The dimensions include housing, health, nutrition, education, asset ownership/economic, information flow and security. The first part of the study involve developing indices of well being using the fuzzy set in order to generate a composite well being index by the elementary indicators of the well being dimensions. The second part of the study used a logistic regression to explore the variability in achieving the composite well being index value by a set of Conversion factors. The fuzzy set result revealed that the capability to attain a desired state of well being is highest with respect to asset ownership and lowest with respect to security. The logistic analysis shows that the predicted probability of attaining the mean capability well being level increases for male headed rural households, increasing educational level and age of the head, increasing household size, employment in the public sector and residence in any other geopolitical zone except the Northwestern zone.

Suggested Citation

  • Oni, Omobowale A. & Adepoju, Temitayo A., 2011. "A capability approach to the analysis of rural households' wellbeing in Nigeria," MPRA Paper 34508, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:34508
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Paul Anand & Graham Hunter & Ron Smith, 2005. "Capabilities and Well-Being: Evidence Based on the Sen–Nussbaum Approach to Welfare," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 74(1), pages 9-55, October.
    2. Betsey Stevenson & Justin Wolfers, 2008. "Economic Growth and Subjective Well-Being: Reassessing the Easterlin Paradox," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 39(1 (Spring), pages 1-102.
    3. Bruno S. Frey & Alois Stutzer, 2002. "What Can Economists Learn from Happiness Research?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(2), pages 402-435, June.
    4. Geeta G. Kingdon & John Knight, 2003. "Well-being poverty versus income poverty and capabilities poverty?," CSAE Working Paper Series 2003-16, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    5. Deepa Narayan & Robert Chambers & Meera K. Shah & Patti Petesch, 2000. "Voices of the Poor : Crying Out for Change," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 13848, December.
    6. Aloysius Mom Njong, Paul Ningaye, 2008. "Characterizing Weights in the Measurement of Multidimensional Poverty: An Application of Data-Driven Approaches to Cameroonian Data," OPHI Working Papers 21, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    7. Zephyr, 2010. "The city," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(1-2), pages 154-155, February.
    8. T O Oyekale & F Y Okunmadewa & B T Omonona & O A Oni, 2009. "Fuzzy Set Approach to Multidimensional Poverty Decomposition in Rural Nigeria," The IUP Journal of Agricultural Economics, IUP Publications, vol. 0(3-4), pages 7-44, July-Octo.
    9. Geeta Gandhi Kingdon & John Knight, 2006. "Subjective well-being poverty vs. Income poverty and capabilities poverty?," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(7), pages 1199-1224.
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    Cited by:

    1. Salau, M.A. & Babatunde, K.M. & Adekanmbi, O.A., 2015. "Climate change and its mitigation on the rural cattle farmers: lessons from Saki Area of Oyo State, Nigeria," Nigerian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Nigerian Journal of Agricultural Economics, vol. 5(1).
    2. Wenjing Han & Yang Fu & Wen Sun, 2023. "Farmland Transfer Participation and Rural Well-Being Inequality: Evidence from Rural China with the Capability Approach," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-21, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Well being; Capability; Rural Households; Nigeria;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D69 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Other
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being

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