Agriculture, Poverty, and Postwar Reconstruction

Micro-Level Evidence from Northern Mozambique

Bibliographic Data

ID3917528
AuthorsCarlos Bozzoli (0000-0001-5079-5540, German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin), Households in Conflict Network (HiCN)), Thalita Bruck (0000-0002-8344-8948, German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin), Humboldt University Berlin, and Households in Conflict Network (HiCN), corresponding author), Tilman Brück
Year2009
Volume46
Issue3
Pages377-397
Publication date2009-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Peace Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-3433 • E-ISSN: 1460-3578
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0022343309102658
OpenAlexW2170981124
LanguageEN
Citations received27
References cited41

This article analyzes the effects of household-level activity choices on farm household welfare in a developing country affected by mass violent armed conflict. The study uses household survey data from postwar Nampula and Cabo Delgado provinces in Northern Mozambique capturing many activity choices, including market participation, risk and activity diversification, cotton adoption, and social exchange, as well as income-and consumption-based measures of welfare. The study advances the literature on postwar coping and rural poverty at the micro level by estimating potentially endogenous activity choices and welfare outcomes using instrumental variables. The study finds that increasing the cultivated area and on-farm activities enhances postwar welfare of smallholders exploiting wartime survival techniques. Subsistence farming reduces income but does not affect consumption, while market participation has positive welfare effects. This suggests that postwar reconstruction policies should encourage the wartime crop mix but offer enhanced marketing opportunities for such crops. Cotton adoption, which was promoted by aid agencies in the postwar period, reduces household welfare per capita by between 16% and 31%, controlling for market access. This contradicts previous studies of postwar rural development that did not control for the war-related endogeneity. Hence, addressing the potential endogeneity of activity choices is important because the standard regression approach may lead to biased estimates of the impact of activity choice on welfare, which in turn may lead to biased policy advice. The article discusses and contextualizes these findings, concluding with a discussion of suitable pro-poor reconstruction policies for national governments and donors

Agriculture · Consumption (sociology) · Demographic economics · Development economics · Economic growth · Economics · Endogeneity · Food security · Geography · Household income · Instrumental variable · Per capita · Poverty · Public economics · Welfare · Agricultural risk and resilience · Land Rights and Reforms · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare

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