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Sources of Financial Assistance for Households Suffering an Adult Death in Kagera, Tanzania

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  • M Lundberg
  • M Over
  • P Mujinja

Abstract

The AIDS crisis in Africa and elsewhere compels us to design appropriate assistance policies for households experience a death. Policies should take into account and strengthen existing household coping strategies, rather than duplicate or undermine them. The authors investigate the nature of coping mechanisms among a sample of households in Kagera, Tanzania in 1991-1994. They estimate the magnitude and timing of receipts of private transfers, credits, and public assistance by households with different characteristics. Their empirical strategy addresses three common methodological difficulties in estimating the impact of adult death: selection bias, endogeneity, and unobserved heterogeneity. The authors find that less-poor households (those with more physical and human capital) benefit from larger receipts of private assistance than poor households. Resource-abundant households are wealthy in social assets as well as physical assets. Poor households, on the other hand, rely relatively more on loans than private transfers, for up to a year after a death. This suggests that credit acts as insurance for households where informal interhousehold assistance contracts are not enforceable. A donor in Kagera can be sure that assistance to a wealthy household may not be able to return the favor. Assistance to the poor is more likely to come with more formal arrangements for repayment. Formal-sector assistance is targeted toward the poor immediately following the death. The impact of adult deaths on households may be mitigated either ex ante, through programs that minimize poverty and vulnerability, or ex post, by assistance targeted to the poorest and most vulnerable households. In addition, to the extent to which micro-credit programs improve access and lower the total costs of borrowing, they may not only stimulate growth and investment but also help resource-poor households overcome the impact of an adult death in the areas hard-hit by the AIDS epidemic.
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  • M Lundberg & M Over & P Mujinja, 2000. "Sources of Financial Assistance for Households Suffering an Adult Death in Kagera, Tanzania," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 68(5), pages 420-443, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:sajeco:v:68:y:2000:i:5:p:420-443
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1813-6982.2000.tb01287.x
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    Cited by:

    1. Fabrice Murtin & Federica Marzo, 2007. "HIV/AIDS and Poverty in South Africa: a Bayesian Estimation," Cahiers de recherche 07-08, Departement d'économique de l'École de gestion à l'Université de Sherbrooke.
    2. Sebastian Linnemayr, 2010. "Consumption Smoothing and HIV/AIDS: The Case of Two Communities in South Africa," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 58(3), pages 475-506, April.
    3. Yamano, Takashi & Jayne, Thomas S., 2002. "Measuring the Impacts of Prime-age Adult Death on Rural Households in Kenya," Food Security Collaborative Working Papers 55152, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    4. Yamano, Takashi & Jayne, T S, 2005. "Working-Age Adult Mortality and Primary School Attendance in Rural Kenya," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 53(3), pages 619-653, April.
    5. Kathleen Beegle & Joachim De Weerdt & Stefan Dercon, 2008. "Adult Mortality and Consumption Growth in the Age of HIV/AIDS," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(2), pages 299-326, January.
    6. Ainsworth, Martha & Dayton, Julia, 2001. "The impact of the AIDS epidemic on the health of the elderly in Tanzania," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2649, The World Bank.
    7. Hagen, Jens & Omar Mahmoud, Toman & Trofimenko, Natalia, 2010. "Orphanhood and Critical Periods in Children's Human Capital Formation: Long-Run Evidence from North-Western Tanzania," Proceedings of the German Development Economics Conference, Hannover 2010 33, Verein für Socialpolitik, Research Committee Development Economics.
    8. Antony Chapoto & T. S. Jayne, 2008. "Impact of AIDS-Related Mortality on Farm Household Welfare in Zambia," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(2), pages 327-374, January.
    9. Chapoto, Antony & Jayne, Thomas S., 2005. "Impact of HIV/AIDS-Related Deaths on Rural Farm Households' Welfare in Zambia: Implications for Poverty Reduction Strategies," Food Security Collaborative Working Papers 54473, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    10. Yamano, Takashi & Shimamura, Yasuharu & Sserunkuuma, Dick, 2006. "Living Arrangements and Schooling of Orphaned Children and Adolescents in Uganda," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(4), pages 833-856, July.
    11. Kathleen Beegle & Joachim De Weerdt & Stefan Dercon, 2008. "Adult Mortality and Consumption Growth in the Age of HIV/AIDS," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56, pages 299-326.

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