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Wealth, risk and activity choices: cattle in Western Tanzania

Author

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  • Stefan Dercon

Abstract

Imperfect credit markets force households to use their own savings for investment. Profitable activities often require lumpy investments making it harder for poorer households to enter such activities, resulting in increasing welfare differences. In mixed-farming systems in Tanzania, cattle are a profitable but lumpy investment and a liquid asset for consumption-smoothing. Richer households own substantial cattle herds, while poorer households specialize more in low return, low risk activities A dynamic programming model and numerical simulations are presented to analyze entry into asset accumulation under income risk. The empirical evidence suggests that households with lower endowments find it harder to start up cattle-rearing and returns to their endowments are lower than for cattle owners.

Suggested Citation

  • Stefan Dercon, 1996. "Wealth, risk and activity choices: cattle in Western Tanzania," CSAE Working Paper Series 1996-08, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    • Handle: RePEc:csa:wpaper:1996-08
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    JEL classification:

    • Q12 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets
    • O16 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Financial Markets; Saving and Capital Investment; Corporate Finance and Governance
    • O55 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Africa
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

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