The short-term economic effects of Covid-19 on low-income households in rural Kenya

An analysis using weekly financial household data

Datos Bibliográficos

ID11914616
AutoresWendy Janssens (0000-0002-2085-8608, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), Manoj Pradhan (0000-0002-7205-4409, University of Amsterdam), Menno Pradhan, Richard de Groot (0000-0002-1272-5952, Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development, autor de correspondencia), Estelle Sidze (0000-0003-1866-3905, African Population and Health Research Center), Hermann Pythagore Pierre Donfouet (0000-0001-6281-7313, African Population and Health Research Center), Amanuel Alemu Abajobir (0000-0002-6878-0627, African Population and Health Research Center), Amanuel Abajobir
Año2020
Volumen138
Páginas105280-105280
Fecha de publicación2020-11-25
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaWorld Development (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0305-750X • E-ISSN: 1873-5991
EditorialElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105280
OpenAlexW3108792988
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas43
Referencias citadas11

This research assesses how low-income households in rural Kenya coped with the immediate economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. It uses granular financial data from weekly household interviews covering six weeks before the first case was detected in Kenya to five weeks after during which various containment measures were implemented. Based on household-level fixed-effects regressions, our results suggest that income from work decreased with almost one-third and income from gifts and remittances reduced by more than one-third after the start of the pandemic. Nevertheless, household expenditures on food remained at pre-COVID levels. We do not find evidence that households coped with reduced income through increased borrowing, selling assets or withdrawing savings. Instead, they gave out less gifts and remittances themselves, lent less money to others and postponed loan repayments. Moreover, they significantly reduced expenditures on schooling and transportation, in line with the school closures and travel restrictions. Thus, despite their affected livelihoods, households managed to keep food expenditures at par, but this came at the cost of reduced informal risk-sharing and social support between households

Agriculture · Business · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Demographic economics · Economic growth · Economics · Geography · Household income · Labour economics · Livelihood · Loan · Pandemic · Poverty · Socioeconomics · Work (physics · Agricultural risk and resilience · COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare · Finance