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Do asset transfers build household resilience?

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  • Phadera, Lokendra
  • Michelson, Hope
  • Winter-Nelson, Alex
  • Goldsmith, Peter

Abstract

We estimate the impact of an asset transfer program on household resilience. We measure resilience as the probability that a household will sustain at least the threshold asset level required to support consumption above the poverty line. Using six rounds of data collected over 42 months in rural Zambia, we construct a measure of resilience based on households' conditional welfare distributions to estimate program impacts. We find that the program increased household resilience; beneficiaries' likelihood of being non-poor in future periods increased by 44%. The program both increased mean assets and decreased variance, signaling an upward shift in households’ conditional asset distributions. Our method demonstrates the added value of the resilience estimation compared with a conventional impact assessment; numerous households classified as non-poor are unlikely to remain non-poor over time and the relationship between wealth and resilience is driven by changes in both the conditional mean and the conditional variance.

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  • Phadera, Lokendra & Michelson, Hope & Winter-Nelson, Alex & Goldsmith, Peter, 2019. "Do asset transfers build household resilience?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 205-227.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:deveco:v:138:y:2019:i:c:p:205-227
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2019.01.003
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    3. Bapu Vaitla & Jennifer Denno Cissé & Joanna Upton & Girmay Tesfay & Nigussie Abadi & Daniel Maxwell, 2020. "How the choice of food security indicators affects the assessment of resilience—an example from northern Ethiopia," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 12(1), pages 137-150, February.
    4. Amrita Saha & Rachel Sabates-Wheeler & John Thompson, 2022. "Insights into smallholder capacity for agricultural commercialisation: Evidence from four African contexts," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 34(4), pages 1757-1802, August.
    5. Phadera,Lokendra & Sharma,Dhiraj & Wai-Poi,Matthew Grant, 2020. "Iraq's Universal Public Distribution System : Utilization and Impacts During Displacement," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9155, The World Bank.
    6. Ansah, Isaac Gershon K. & Kotu, Bekele Hundie & Manda, Julius & Muthoni, Francis & Azzarri, Carlo, 2023. "Mediation and moderation roles of resilience capacity in the shock–food-security nexus in northern Ghana," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    7. Scognamillo, Antonio & Song, Chun & Ignaciuk, Adriana, 2023. "No man is an Island: A spatially explicit approach to measure development resilience," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    8. Premand, Patrick & Stoeffler, Quentin, 2022. "Cash transfers, climatic shocks and resilience in the Sahel," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    9. Demissie, Birhan S. & Kasie, Tesfahun A. & Upton, Joanna B. & Blom, Sylvia A., 2021. "Climate Shocks And Resilience: Evidence From Rural Ethiopia," PRCI Research Papers 320707, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics, Food Security Group.
    10. Upton, Joanna & Constenla-Villoslada, Susana & Barrett, Christopher B., 2022. "Caveat utilitor: A comparative assessment of resilience measurement approaches," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    11. Barrett, Christopher B. & Ghezzi-Kopel, Kate & Hoddinott, John & Homami, Nima & Tennant, Elizabeth & Upton, Joanna & Wu, Tong, 2021. "A scoping review of the development resilience literature: Theory, methods and evidence," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    12. Lahiri, Bidisha & Daramola, Richard, 2023. "Effects of credit and labor constraints on microenterprises and the unintended impact of changes in household endowments: Use of threshold estimation to detect heterogeneity," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 21-38.
    13. Upton, Joanna & Tennant, Elizabeth & Florella, Kathryn J. & Barrett, Christopher B., 2021. "A Comparative Assessment of Resilience Measuremen tApproaches," Working Papers 316614, Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management.
    14. Abay, Kibrom A. & Abay, Mehari H. & Berhane, Guush & Chamberlin, Jordan, 2022. "Social protection and resilience: The case of the productive safety net program in Ethiopia," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    15. Marco d’Errico & Jeanne Pinay & Ellestina Jumbe & Anh Hong Luu, 2023. "Drivers and stressors of resilience to food insecurity: evidence from 35 countries," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 15(5), pages 1161-1183, October.
    16. Lee, Seungmin & Barrett, Christopher B. & Hoddinott, John F., 2021. "Food Security Dynamics in the United States: Insights Using a New Measure," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315065, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    17. Oconnor, Christopher, 2023. "Robust estimates of vulnerability to poverty using quantile models," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    18. Tesfahun, Birhan S. & Kasie, A. & Upton, Joanna B. & Blom, Sylvia A., 2021. "Climate Shocks And Resilience: Evidence From Rural Ethiopia," PRCI Research Papers 321060, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics, Food Security Group.
    19. Yao, Becatien & Shanoyan, Aleksan & Schwab, Ben & Amanor-Boadu, Vincent, 2023. "The role of mobile money in household resilience: Evidence from Kenya," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    20. Smith, Lisa C. & Frankenberger, Timothy R., 2022. "Recovering from severe drought in the drylands of Ethiopia: Impact of Comprehensive Resilience Programming," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    21. Edmonds, Eric & Theoharides, Caroline, 2020. "The short term impact of a productive asset transfer in families with child labor: Experimental evidence from the Philippines," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Poverty dynamics; Resilience; Livestock; Asset transfers;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O22 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - Project Analysis

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