Shocks and Vulnerability in Rural Tanzania

Tseday J. Mekasha, Kenneth Mdadila and Finn Tarp

Review of Development Economics, 2026, vol. 30, issue 3, 1916-1939

Abstract: This paper examines the relative importance of idiosyncratic and covariate shocks in shaping household vulnerability to poverty in rural Tanzania. Using five rounds of the Tanzanian National Panel Survey and a three‐level multilevel modeling framework, we account for the hierarchical structure of the data and decompose consumption variance into covariate and idiosyncratic components. Our results show that overall vulnerability to poverty, defined as the probability of falling into poverty at least once in the next 5 years, stands at 59%. Disaggregating by source, 61% of households are vulnerable due to idiosyncratic shocks, while 36% face vulnerability from covariate shocks. Households vulnerable to either shock type exhibit significantly lower food consumption, with idiosyncratic and covariate vulnerability associated with 12% and 10%–16% lower consumption, respectively, compared to non‐vulnerable households. Health shocks, in particular, emerge as critical drivers of idiosyncratic vulnerability, increasing the probability of being vulnerable by 3.2 percentage points. The correlates analysis underscores the protective role of assets, education, and infrastructure, while consistently showing that female‐headed households face higher vulnerability across all measures. These findings underscore the need for a two‐pronged policy response: strengthening household‐level risk management through rural health insurance, access to healthcare, and targeted safety nets, while simultaneously investing in systemic measures such as drought preparedness, food price stabilization, and community resilience building.

Date: 2026
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