Poverty, asset accumulation, household livelihood and interaction with local institutions in northern Ethiopia

Abstract

Acknowledgements i Definition of local terms vii Acronyms vii List of figures viii List of tables viii Summary xiii Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Background 1 1.2 Research questions 4 1.3 Study area 5 1.3.1 Tigray regional state 5 1.3.2 The study villages 9 1.4 Data and methodology 10 1.5 Thesis organization 13 Chapter 2 Poverty profile and inequality in northern Ethiopia, 2004-2006 15 2.1 Introduction 15 2.2 Methodology and data source 16 2.2.1 The poverty line 17 2.2.2 Poverty indices 18 2.2.3 Data 19 2.3 Extent of poverty in northern Ethiopia, 2004-2006 19 2.3.1 Geographical distribution of poverty 22 2.3.2 Results of stochastic dominance test 23 2.3.3 Characteristics of the poor 26 2.4 Modelling determinants of poverty 30 2.4.1 Variables for regression 32 2.4.2 Results 34 2.5 Poverty simulation 40 2.6 Determinants of income inequality 45 2.7 Conclusions 49 Chapter 3 Rural poverty dynamics and impact of intervention programs upon chronic and transient poverty in northern Ethiopia 58 3.1 Introduction 58 3.2 Intervention programs in Tigray 59 3.3 Data and methodology 62 3.3.1 Data 62 3.3.2 Measuring and decomposing poverty 62 3.3.3 The impact of intervention programs upon chronic and transient poverty 64 3.3.4 Conditioning variables for program participation 67 3.4 Results and discussion 69 3.4.1 Dynamics of poverty 69 3.4.2 The poverty impact of the FFW and FSP programs 78 3.5 Conclusions and policy recommendations 85 3.5.1 Conclusions 85 3.5.2 Policy recommendations 86 Chapter 4 Rural livestock asset portfolio in northern Ethiopia: A micro economic analysis of choice and accumulation 89 4.1 Introduction 89 4.2 Choice and accumulation of livestock: Conceptual framework 90 4.3 Livestock asset portfolio in rural Tigray 93 4.3.1 Average livestock portfolio 93 4.3.2 Livestock inequality 97 4.4 Choice modelling and accumulation 99 4.5 Estimation results 107 4.5.1 Selection of primary animal 107 4.5.2 Livestock accumulation 113 4.6 Conclusions and policy implications 117 Chapter 5 Social capital and household welfare in northern Ethiopia 121 5.1 Introduction 121 5.2 Literature review 122 5.3 Theoretical background and estimating models 126 5.3.1 Social capital and household welfare: Multivariate analysis 126 5.3.2 Social capital and consumption smoothing 128 5.4 Data and measurement of social capital 133 5.4.1 Data 133 5.4.2 Measurement of social capital 134 5.5 Empirical results 137 5.5.1 Social capital and consumption level 137 5.5.2 Gender dimension of social capital 141 5.5.3 Social capital and consumption smoothing 142 5.5.4 Consumption and specific shocks 144 5.6 Effects of social capital: Access to credit, diversification, collective action and empowerment 147 5.6.1 Social capital and access to credit 147 5.6.2 Social capital and diversification 151 5.6.3 Social capital and collective action 159 5.6.4 Social capital and empowerment 162 5.7 Conclusions and policy implications 167 5.7.1 Conclusions 167 5.7.2 Policy implications 169 Chapter 6 Conclusions and recommendations 171 6.1 Conclusions 171 6.2 Recommendations 172 6.3 Limitations and suggestions for future research 174 6.3.1 Limitations 174 6.3.2 Suggestions for future research 175 References 177status: publishe