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Title The Longitudinal Dynamics of Household Composition and Wealth in Rural Malawi
Full text http://hdl.handle.net/1885/205978
Date 2019
Author(s) Myroniuk, Tyler W.; Payne, Collin
Abstract Household living arrangements play a crucial role in survival efforts throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Household living arrangements foster the development of informal insurance that can mitigate economic or filial shocks, and potentially improve the overall well-being of kin. However, scholarship in subSaharan African settings has not been able to, or has not attempted, to track how households have changed and the coinciding changes in livelihood outcomes. We ask whether changes in overall household size and the addition of dependents and working-age individuals are associated with changes in household wealth, a signal of well-being. We use the Malawi Longitudinal Study of Families and Health (MLSFH) to exploit detailed data on changing Malawian household composition via a household roster matching technique and fixed effects regressions. The addition of members to a household and the presence of more boys and workingage men'to a certain point'are associated with having more durable goods and greater chances of acquiring a metal roof'key indicators of wealth in rural Malawi. The addition of girls and women of any age are seemingly not linked to changes in household wealth.
Language en_AU
Publisher University of Calgary
Type of publication Journal article
Format application/pdf
Source Journal of Comparative Family Studies
Rights © Journal of Comparative Family Studies 2019
Identifier 0047-2328; 10.3138/jcfs.50.3.003
Repository Canberra - Australian National University
Added to C-A: 2020-07-13;08:58:05