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Sources of Financial Assistance for Households Suffering an Adult Death in Kagera, Tanzania
Author(s) -
Lundberg M,
Over M,
Mujinja P
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
south african journal of economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.502
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 1813-6982
pISSN - 0038-2280
DOI - 10.1111/j.1813-6982.2000.tb01287.x
Subject(s) - tanzania , socioeconomics , development economics , business , economic growth , economics , geography
In view of the severity of the AIDS epidemic in Africa and elsewhere, a pressing public policy concern is how to best design assistance policies for households experiencing an adult death. Better policies will take into account and strengthen existing household coping mechanisms, rather than duplicating or undermining them. In this paper we investigate the nature of coping mechanisms among a sample of households in Kagera, Tanzania in 1991-94, by estimating the magnitude and timing of receipts of private transfers, public assistance and loans by households with different characteristics. The empirical strategy addresses three methodological difficulties which are common to any attempt to estimate the impact of, or response to, adult death: selection bias, endogeneity, and heterogeneity. We find that less poor households (i.e. those with more physical and human capital) benefit from larger receipts of private assistance, but receive less public assistance initially after the death. On the other hand, poor households rely more than less poor ones on loans for up to a year after a death. Though the loans in this sample are largely private, these results suggest that the expansion of micro-credit programs as well as targeted grant programs may help the poorest households in areas hard-hit by the AIDS epidemic.