IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jfpoli/v87y2019ics0306919219305561.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Cash transfers and nutrition: The role of market isolation after weather shocks

Author

Listed:
  • Dietrich, Stephan
  • Schmerzeck, Georg

Abstract

Cash transfers are a widely used policy instrument in Sub-Saharan Africa to shield vulnerable populations from malnutrition. In this paper, we focus on the role of local food markets after weather shocks as a facilitating factor for program impacts on nutrition. As food prices tend to be negatively correlated with households’ own production in isolated markets, we expect the purchasing power of cash transfers to decrease after harvest failures in such markets. To test this, we analyze the impact of Kenya’s Hunger Safety Net Programme during the 2011 drought in the Horn of Africa, considering the impacts on food consumption and the availability of macro- and micro-nutrients at the household level. We particularly focus on heterogeneous program impacts depending on the exposure to the drought, measured with satellite imagery, and impacts depending on the isolation of local food markets, approximated by price differences between community and wholesale maize prices. Our findings indicate that, despite some encouraging effects on proxy indicators, the program does not have significant impacts on nutrient availability on average. However, we do observe significant positive impacts for drought affected households in less isolated communities.

Suggested Citation

  • Dietrich, Stephan & Schmerzeck, Georg, 2019. "Cash transfers and nutrition: The role of market isolation after weather shocks," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 1-1.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:jfpoli:v:87:y:2019:i:c:s0306919219305561
    DOI: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2019.101739
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306919219305561
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.foodpol.2019.101739?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dietrich, Stephan & Schmerzeck, Georg, 2020. "For real? Income and non-income effects of cash transfers on the demand for food," MERIT Working Papers 2020-006, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    2. Simona Omondi, 2024. "Effect of Cash Transfers on Hunger Reduction towards Achieving Sustainable Development Goals among Female-Headed Households in Siaya County, Kenya," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 8(8), pages 1255-1263, August.
    3. Shouro Dasgupta & Elizabeth J. Z. Robinson, 2021. "Food Insecurity, Safety Nets, and Coping Strategies during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Multi-Country Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-22, September.
    4. Jaah, Mkupete & Fintel, Dieter von & Burger, Ronelle, 2021. "Maize Price Shock, Agriculture Production and Children Nutrition Outcomes in Tanzania," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 314974, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    5. Masanori Matsuura‐Kannari & Yir‐Hueih Luh & Abu Hayat Md. Saiful Islam, 2023. "Weather shocks, livelihood diversification, and household food security: Empirical evidence from rural Bangladesh," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 54(4), pages 455-470, July.
    6. Seth R. Gitter & James Manley & Jill Bernstein & Paul Winters, 2022. "Do agricultural support and cash transfer programmes improve nutritional status?," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(1), pages 203-235, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jfpoli:v:87:y:2019:i:c:s0306919219305561. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/foodpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.