TY - JOUR

T1 - Multiple shocks and households' choice of coping strategies in rural Cambodia

AU - Nguyen, Thanh Tung

AU - Nguyen, Trung Thanh

AU - Grote, Ulrike

N1 - Funding information: This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies. Research was supported by the Institute for Environmental Economics and World Trade, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover . This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies. Research was supported by the Institute for Environmental Economics and World Trade, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universit?t Hannover.We thank the farmers in Strung Treng for their support and cooperation. Support from the Cambodia Development Resource Institute (CDRI) for our data collection is highly appreciated. We thank three anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments to improve the paper.

PY - 2020/1

Y1 - 2020/1

N2 - A detailed understanding of households' shock-coping capacity is needed to design appropriate social safety net programs and interventions. We use a 2-year panel dataset from rural Cambodia to seek answers to the following research questions: (i) are rural households forced to reduce their consumption due to shocks? and (ii) what are the factors affecting households' choice of shock-coping strategies in response to shocks? The results of econometric models reveal that most covariate shocks have significant and negative effects on household consumption. In particular, total consumption expenditure and food consumption expenditure are negatively affected by floods, whereas household education expenditure is negatively affected by livestock diseases. These shocks also force households to use coping strategies of selling durable assets and extracting natural resources. Although droughts appear not to significantly affect household consumption, these shocks push households into using child labor, selling durable assets or extracting natural resources. Household consumption is shown to be not significantly affected by health shocks. Borrowing and receiving assistance from friends and relatives are identified as major coping strategies in response to health shocks. Our findings call for assistance programs to support households in preventing and mitigating the effects of floods, droughts and livestock diseases.

AB - A detailed understanding of households' shock-coping capacity is needed to design appropriate social safety net programs and interventions. We use a 2-year panel dataset from rural Cambodia to seek answers to the following research questions: (i) are rural households forced to reduce their consumption due to shocks? and (ii) what are the factors affecting households' choice of shock-coping strategies in response to shocks? The results of econometric models reveal that most covariate shocks have significant and negative effects on household consumption. In particular, total consumption expenditure and food consumption expenditure are negatively affected by floods, whereas household education expenditure is negatively affected by livestock diseases. These shocks also force households to use coping strategies of selling durable assets and extracting natural resources. Although droughts appear not to significantly affect household consumption, these shocks push households into using child labor, selling durable assets or extracting natural resources. Household consumption is shown to be not significantly affected by health shocks. Borrowing and receiving assistance from friends and relatives are identified as major coping strategies in response to health shocks. Our findings call for assistance programs to support households in preventing and mitigating the effects of floods, droughts and livestock diseases.

KW - Cambodia

KW - Coping strategies

KW - Education expenditure

KW - Food consumption

KW - Multiple shocks

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85071592238&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2019.106442

DO - 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2019.106442

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85071592238

VL - 167

JO - Ecological Economics

JF - Ecological Economics

SN - 0921-8009

M1 - 106442

ER -