What about the Women? Female Headship, Poverty and Vulnerability in Thailand and Vietnam

Stephan Klasen, Tobias Lechtenfeld and Felix Povel

No 43, Proceedings of the German Development Economics Conference, Hannover 2010 from Verein für Socialpolitik, Research Committee Development Economics

Abstract: This paper investigates whether different types of female?headed households in Thailand and Vietnam are disadvantaged in terms of current consumption, exposure to shocks, consumption smoothing capacities, as well as vulnerability to poverty and downside risk. Using a unique panel data set of over 4000 rural households in both countries, we find that female headed households with an absent husband appear to be better off in terms of current consumption in both countries (suggesting a positive impact of remittances). However, de jure female headed households in Thailand and Vietnam are more exposed to shocks and are less able to insure their consumption against income shocks than other households. In line with this finding de jure female headed households are also more vulnerable to perceived downside risk. Instead, de facto female headed households are less vulnerable to poverty and not worse off in terms of vulnerability to perceived downside risk.

Keywords: Poverty; Gender Analysis; Vulnerability to Poverty; Inter?generational Poverty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Working Paper: What about the Women? Female Headship, Poverty and Vulnerability in Thailand and Vietnam (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:gdec10:43

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