Social Protection in Niger : What Have Shocks and Time Got to Say?

Annan, Francis ; Sanoh, Aly

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: SOCIAL INVERVENTION;    SHOCKS;    VULNERABILITY;    INCENTIVES;    HOUSEHOLD CONSUMPTION;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-8455
RP-ID  :  WPS8455

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Social protection programs, common indeveloping countries, can be wide ranging. Expenditures onsocial schemes are large, but their effectiveness andability to act as safety nets against shocks can be limited.This paper devises a tractable empirical framework toexplore several hypotheses in social protection schemes inNiger. The analyses document two important results. First,non-poverty status and household consumption expendituresdecline remarkably when exposed to extreme shocks, that is,declines between 31 and 48 percentage points and 24,278 and47,549 CFA, respectively. In response, affected householdsemploy a vector of strategies to deal with realized shocks,ranging from the use of livestock holdings to doing nothing.There is evidence of substitution across the shock-strategyset over time. Engaging in migration as a coping mechanismleads to worse household outcomes. This result can beexplained by theories of asymmetric information betweenmigrants and their families, and unfavorable labor marketconditions at migrants' destination. Second, socialtransfers are crucial only in the second quarter of thecalendar year. Social assistance provided within the secondquarter appear to be effective on average and significantlydampens the impact of shocks on households' consumptionand vulnerability. The paper interprets this finding asevidence against the long-standing incentive-hypothesis thatproviding social assistance is a disincentive for householdsto engage in possible coping strategies, and makes them moresensitive to external shocks for behavioral reasons. Theresults have important implications for the design anddelivery of social assistance programs.