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Coping or Hoping ? Livelihood Diversification and Food Insecurity in the COVID-19 Pandemic

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  • Furbush,Ann M.
  • Josephson,Anna
  • Talip Kilic
  • Michler,Jeffrey D.

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of livelihood diversification on food insecurity amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis uses household panel data from Ethiopia, Malawi, and Nigeria in which the first round was collected immediately prior to the pandemic and extends through multiple rounds of monthly data collection during the pandemic. Using this pre- and post-outbreak data, and guided by a pre-analysis plan, the paper estimates the causal effect of livelihood diversification on food insecurity. The results do not support the hypothesis that livelihood diversification boosts household resilience. Although income diversification may serve as an effective coping mechanism for small-scale shocks, the findings show that for a disaster on the scale of the pandemic, this strategy is not effective. Policy makers looking to prepare for the increased occurrence of large-scale disasters will need to grapple with the fact that coping strategies that gave people hope in the past may fail them as they try to cope with the future.

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  • Furbush,Ann M. & Josephson,Anna & Talip Kilic & Michler,Jeffrey D., 2025. "Coping or Hoping ? Livelihood Diversification and Food Insecurity in the COVID-19 Pandemic," Policy Research Working Paper Series 11014, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:11014
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    JEL classification:

    • F6 - International Economics - - Economic Impacts of Globalization
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • O2 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy
    • Q18 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Policy; Food Policy; Animal Welfare Policy

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