IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pui/dpaper/213.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Surviving Loss: Coping Strategies among Widow Households in Thai Rural Areas

Author

Listed:
  • Saisawat Samutpradit

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of the death of the primary earner of the household on the labor supply decision of the remaining household member in rural areas, in contrast to literature which often focuses on more developed societies with complete public insurance coverage. We found widow households could maintain the same level of consumption with only a temporary decline in savings. They achieved this by taking over the household business and receiving support from children and other relatives who moved in to assist, with the responsibility falling on daughters rather than sons. On the contrary, widowers withdrew from the labor force after the death of their wives. The di erence in responses could be explained by the income gain to the remaining household members. Widows also experienced a rise in gift income and a decrease in public transfer.

Suggested Citation

  • Saisawat Samutpradit, 2024. "Surviving Loss: Coping Strategies among Widow Households in Thai Rural Areas," PIER Discussion Papers 213, Puey Ungphakorn Institute for Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:pui:dpaper:213
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.pier.or.th/files/dp/pier_dp_213.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hoddinott, John & Haddad, Lawrence, 1995. "Does Female Income Share Influence Household Expenditures? Evidence from Cote d'Ivoire," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 57(1), pages 77-96, February.
    2. Clément de Chaisemartin & Xavier D'Haultfœuille, 2020. "Two-Way Fixed Effects Estimators with Heterogeneous Treatment Effects," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(9), pages 2964-2996, September.
    3. Fafchamps, Marcel & Udry, Christopher & Czukas, Katherine, 1998. "Drought and saving in West Africa: are livestock a buffer stock?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 273-305, April.
    4. David A. Wise, 1989. "The Economics of Aging," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number wise89-1, March.
    5. Wojciech Kopczuk & Joseph P. Lupton, 2007. "To Leave or Not to Leave: The Distribution of Bequest Motives," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 74(1), pages 207-235.
    6. Fu‐Min Tseng & Dennis Petrie & Shaolin Wang & Colin Macduff & Audrey I. Stephen, 2018. "The impact of spousal bereavement on hospitalisations: Evidence from the Scottish Longitudinal Study," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(2), pages 120-138, February.
    7. Hanan G. Jacoby & Emmanuel Skoufias, 1997. "Risk, Financial Markets, and Human Capital in a Developing Country," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 64(3), pages 311-335.
    8. Richard V. Burkhauser & Philip Giles & Dean R. Lillard & Johannes Schwarze, 2005. "Until Death Do Us Part: An Analysis of the Economic Well-Being of Widows in Four Countries," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 60(5), pages 238-246.
    9. Knodel, John & Im-em, Wassana, 2004. "The economic consequences for parents of losing an adult child to AIDS: Evidence from Thailand," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 59(5), pages 987-1001, September.
    10. Sun, Liyang & Abraham, Sarah, 2021. "Estimating dynamic treatment effects in event studies with heterogeneous treatment effects," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 175-199.
    11. Elwert, F. & Christakis, N.A., 2008. "The effect of widowhood on mortality by the causes of death of both spouses," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 98(11), pages 2092-2098.
    12. Goodman-Bacon, Andrew, 2021. "Difference-in-differences with variation in treatment timing," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 254-277.
    13. Hamermesh, Daniel S. & Myck, Michal & Oczkowska, Monika, 2021. "Widows' Time, Time Stress and Happiness: Adjusting to Loss," IZA Discussion Papers 14343, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Massimo Baldini & Costanza Torricelli & Maria Cesira Urzì Brancati, 2018. "Family ties: Labor supply responses to cope with a household employment shock," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 809-832, September.
    15. Itzik Fadlon & Torben Heien Nielsen, 2021. "Family Labor Supply Responses to Severe Health Shocks: Evidence from Danish Administrative Records," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 13(3), pages 1-30, July.
    16. Carlos Bethencourt & José-Víctor Ríos-Rull, 2009. "On The Living Arrangements Of Elderly Widows," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 50(3), pages 773-801, August.
    17. Erixson, Oscar & Escobar, Sebastian, 2020. "Deathbed tax planning," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    18. Courtney C. Coile, 2004. "Health Shocks and Couples' Labor Supply Decisions," NBER Working Papers 10810, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nadja van 't Hoff & Giovanni Mellace & Seetha Menon, 2025. "Gender Differences in Healthcare Utilisation -- Evidence from Unexpected Adverse Health Shocks," Papers 2509.01310, arXiv.org.
    2. Wen, Jiayi & Huang, Haili, 2024. "Parental health penalty on adult children’s employment: Gender differences and long-term consequences," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    3. Bassoli, Elena & Eibich, Peter & Zai, Xianhua, 2025. "The Mental Health Consequences of Spousal Bereavement," IZA Discussion Papers 18027, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Di Meo, Giovanni & Eryilmaz, Onur, 2025. "The impacts of health shocks on household labor supply and domestic production," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    5. Ester Lazzari & Valeria Zurla, 2024. "The Effect of Parental Caregiving on the Fertility Expectations of Adult Children," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 40(1), pages 1-22, December.
    6. Courtney Coile & Maya Rossin-Slater & Amanda Su, 2022. "The Impact of Paid Family Leave on Families with Health Shocks," NBER Working Papers 30739, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Clò, Stefano & David, Francesco & Segoni, Samuele, 2024. "The impact of hydrogeological events on firms: Evidence from Italy," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    8. Cheung, T. Terry & Kan, Kamhon & Yang, Tzu-Ting, 2025. "Parental responses to child disability: Gender differences and relative earnings," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    9. Mensah, Justice Tei & Wankuru, Peter Chacha & Kirui, Benard K., 2025. "Public Procurement and Firms : Evidence from Kenya," Policy Research Working Paper Series 11227, The World Bank.
    10. Bas Scheer & Wiljan van den Berge & Maarten Goos & Alan Manning & Anna Salomons, 2022. "Alternative Work Arrangements and Worker Outcomes: Evidence from Payrolling," CPB Discussion Paper 435, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    11. Mac Clay, Pablo & Börner, Jan & Sellare, Jorge, 2023. "Institutional and macroeconomic stability mediate the effect of auctions on renewable energy capacity," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    12. Katrin Huber & Geske Rolvering, 2023. "Public child care and mothers’ career trajectories," Working Papers 228, Bavarian Graduate Program in Economics (BGPE).
    13. Coury, Michael & Falconer, Liam & La Nauze, Andrea, 2024. "Wildfire smoke and private provision of public air-quality monitoring," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    14. Ricardo Dahis & Christiane Szerman, 2023. "Decentralizing Development: Evidence from Government Splits," Monash Economics Working Papers 2023-18, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    15. Arne Henningsen & Guy Low & David Wuepper & Tobias Dalhaus & Hugo Storm & Dagim Belay & Stefan Hirsch, 2024. "Estimating Causal Effects with Observational Data: Guidelines for Agricultural and Applied Economists," IFRO Working Paper 2024/03, University of Copenhagen, Department of Food and Resource Economics.
    16. Stefan Bauernschuster & Michael Grimm & Cathy M. Hajo, 2023. "The Impact of Margaret Sanger’s Birth Control Clinics on Early 20th Century U.S. Fertility and Mortality," CESifo Working Paper Series 10421, CESifo.
    17. Bhalotra, Sonia & Clarke, Damian & Mühlrad, Hanna & Palme, Mårten, 2021. "Health and Labor Market Impacts of Twin Birth : Evidence from a Swedish IVF Policy Mandate," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1391, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    18. Guignet, Dennis & Jenkins, Robin R. & Belke, James & Mason, Henry, 2023. "The property value impacts of industrial chemical accidents," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    19. Cocco, Valentin & Chakir, Raja & Mouysset, Lauriane, 2025. "Guilty or scapegoat? Land consolidation and hedgerow decline," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    20. Rik Chakraborti & Gavin Roberts, 2023. "How price-gouging regulation undermined COVID-19 mitigation: county-level evidence of unintended consequences," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 196(1), pages 51-83, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:pui:dpaper:213. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/pierbth.html .

    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.