Assets, Shocks, and Poverty Traps in Rural Mozambique

Lena Giesbert and Kati Schindler
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Kati Kraehnert

No 1073, Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin from DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research

Abstract: Using a micro-level approach to poverty traps, this paper explores welfare dynamics among households in post-war rural Mozambique. Conceptually, the paper builds on an asset-based approach to poverty and tests empirically, with household panel data, for the existence of a poverty trap. Findings indicate that there is little differentiation in productive asset endowments over time and that rural households gravitate towards a single equilibrium, which is at a surprisingly low level. The analysis shows that shocks and household coping behavior help to explain the observed poverty dynamics. The single low-level equilibrium points to an overall development trap in the rural farm-based economy. This is attributed to the long-term impact of the civil war, which has consolidated unfavorable economic conditions in rural areas and limited new economic opportunities outside of the agricultural sector.

Keywords: Asset-based approach; Mozambique; poverty trap; shocks; violent conflict (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 I32 O12 O18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 p.
Date: 2010
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-agr and nep-dev
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (24)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/diw_01.c.363264.de/dp1073.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Assets, Shocks, and Poverty Traps in Rural Mozambique (2012)
Working Paper: Assets, Shocks, and Poverty Traps in Rural Mozambique (2010)
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:diw:diwwpp:dp1073

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin from DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Bibliothek ().