Evidence on Informal Insurance in Rural Zimbabwe

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Periodical article

Title:	Evidence on Informal Insurance in Rural Zimbabwe
Author:	Hoogeveen, Hans
Year:	2002
Periodical:	Journal of African Economies
Volume:	11
Issue:	2
Period:	June
Pages:	249-278
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Zimbabwe
Subjects:	household budget self-help rural households Economics and Trade
External link:	https://jae.oxfordjournals.org/content/11/2/249.full.pdf
Abstract:	The test for the presence of full insurance employed by R.M. Townsend (1994) and various others does not take into account that households rely on buffer stocks to shield their consumption from income shocks. In this paper it is shown how, in the presence of partial insurance, not including buffer stocks leads to estimates that underreport the degree of informal insurance. A test to correct for this omission is developed and used on a panel of farm households in Zimbabwe. The data set comprises information on 400 land-reform beneficiary households (resettled in the early 1980s) and 150 communal (ordinary) farm households, collected between 1997 and 1999 and reflecting the seasons 1995-1996 until 1997-1998. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract, edited]