Food security and the COVID-19 employment shock in Nigeria: Any ex-ante mitigating effects of past remittances?

Al-mouksit Akim, Firmin Ayivodji and Jeffrey Kouton

Food Policy, 2024, vol. 122, issue C

Abstract: This paper examines the role of past remittances in mitigating the adverse effects of COVID-19 employment shocks on food security in Nigeria. We formally define the mitigating effects parameter as the difference in the shock impact between households that received remittances and those that did not. Leveraging pre- and post-COVID-19 surveys, we employ a triple-difference strategy to estimate the mitigating effects parameter. Our results suggest that past remittances can alleviate the negative consequences of COVID-19 employment shocks, particularly in the short term. Indeed, the mitigation effect is limited to the early stages of the pandemic, as the negative effects of the shock persist over time. Additionally, we find that the impact of remittances on mitigating the shock varies based on the origin of remittances, recipients’ area of residence, and poverty status. Furthermore, our study highlights the importance of the capital channel in explaining the mitigating role of past remittances. Our findings demonstrate that formal financial inclusion, capital ownership such as livestock, and rental earnings amplify the impact of remittances in mitigating the negative consequences of COVID-19 employment shocks on food security.

Keywords: COVID-19; Remittances; Employment shock; Food insecurity; Insurance; Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E21 E24 I12 O12 O55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306919223001720
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jfpoli:v:122:y:2024:i:c:s0306919223001720

DOI: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2023.102574

Access Statistics for this article

Food Policy is currently edited by J. Kydd

More articles in Food Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().