Sources of Financial Assistance for Households Suffering an Adult Death in Kagera, Tanzania

Lundberg, Mattias ; Over, Mead ; Mujinja, Phare

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: CAPITA EXPENDITURE;    CLINICS;    COMMUNITY LEVEL;    COUNTERFACTUAL;    CROWDING OUT;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-2508
RP-ID  :  WPS2508

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The AIDS crisis in Africa and elsewherecompels us to design appropriate assistance policies forhouseholds experience a death. Policies should take intoaccount and strengthen existing household coping strategies,rather than duplicate or undermine them. The authorsinvestigate the nature of coping mechanisms among a sampleof households in Kagera, Tanzania in 1991-1994. Theyestimate the magnitude and timing of receipts of privatetransfers, credits, and public assistance by households withdifferent characteristics. Their empirical strategyaddresses three common methodological difficulties inestimating the impact of adult death: selection bias,endogeneity, and unobserved heterogeneity. The authors findthat less-poor households (those with more physical andhuman capital) benefit from larger receipts of privateassistance than poor households. Resource-abundanthouseholds are wealthy in social assets as well as physicalassets. Poor households, on the other hand, rely relativelymore on loans than private transfers, for up to a year aftera death. This suggests that credit acts as insurance forhouseholds where informal interhousehold assistancecontracts are not enforceable. A donor in Kagera can be surethat assistance to a wealthy household may not be able toreturn the favor. Assistance to the poor is more likely tocome with more formal arrangements for repayment.Formal-sector assistance is targeted toward the poorimmediately following the death. The impact of adult deathson households may be mitigated either ex ante, throughprograms that minimize poverty and vulnerability, or expost, by assistance targeted to the poorest and mostvulnerable households. In addition, to the extent to whichmicro-credit programs improve access and lower the totalcosts of borrowing, they may not only stimulate growth andinvestment but also help resource-poor households overcomethe impact of an adult death in the areas hard-hit by theAIDS epidemic.