Do Asset Transfers Build Household Resilience? (with Hope Michelson, Alex Winter-Nelson and Peter D Goldsmith)
Journal of Development Economics, 138 (May 2019): 205-227
Abstract:
We estimate the impact of an asset transfer program on household resilience. We measure resilience as the probability that a household will sustain at least the threshold asset level required to support consumption above the poverty line. Using six rounds of data collected over 42 months in rural Zambia, we construct a measure of resilience based on households' conditional welfare distributions to estimate program impacts. We find that the program increased household resilience; beneficiaries' likelihood of being non-poor in future periods increased by 44%. The program both increased mean assets and decreased variance, signaling an upward shift in households' conditional asset distributions. Our method demonstrates the added value of the resilience estimation compared with a conventional impact assessment; numerous households classified as non-poor are unlikely to remain non-poor over time and the relationship between wealth and resilience is driven by changes in both the conditional mean and the conditional variance.
Unfortunate Moms and Unfortunate Children: Impact of the Nepali Civil War on Women's Stature and Intergenerational Health
Journal of Health Economics, Volume 76, March 2021, 102410
Abstract:
I analyze the long-term health impacts of the 1996-2006 Nepalese civil conflict using information on conflict incidents at the village level, which allows me to identify the effects of exposure to conflict more accurately than prior studies. Moreover, I am able to track the impact of conflict on health outcomes across generations. Growth stunting is a known outcome of health shocks in childhood, and height has long been recognized as an important factor influencing individuals’ professional and personal success. I exploit the heterogeneity in conflict intensity across villages and birth cohorts to document long-term health and intergenerational impacts. I find that childhood exposure to conflict and, in particular, exposure starting in infancy, has highly significant and negative impacts on final adult height – each additional month of exposure decreases women’s height by 1.36 millimeters. Additionally, this is among the first papers to document the intergenerational impacts of early childhood conflict exposure. I find that mother’s exposure to conflict in her childhood is detrimental to her children’s health. Exposed mothers have more children and live in less wealthy households, likely reducing their ability to invest during critical periods of their children’s development.
Impact of International Migration on Labor Supply in Nepal
World Bank Policy Research Working paper: WPS 9014
Abstract:
This paper analyzes the differential impact of migration on labor supply of the left-behind household members in Nepal, where international migration for employment, predominantly a male phenomenon, increased substantially between 2001 and 2011. Using the NLSS III data, this paper extends the analysis further by incorporating the impacts on both extensive and intensive margins and answering the question of if they are not wage-employed, what the remaining members in the household engaging in instead. The paper finds that, in response to out-migration of some family members, women realign their priorities and reallocate their time from market employment to self-employment and home production, possibly filling in the roles vacated by the migrants. In contrast, the income effect dominates the impact of migration on the left-behind men; that is, men value their leisure more because of the remittances from abroad and decrease their overall supply of labor.