IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/palcom/v7y2020i1d10.1057_s41599-020-00674-w.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Health shocks and vulnerability to poverty in Congo

Author

Listed:
  • Séverin Aimé Blanchard Ouadika

    (Université Marien Ngouabi de Brazzaville)

Abstract

The analysis of the link between poverty and health status in developing countries is a major focus of development policy. However, few studies, particularly in the Congo, focus on a prospective analysis of poverty and consider the variability of future consumption after a health shock. The objective of this study is to estimate vulnerability to poverty and analyse the factors that lead to a loss of well-being after a health shock in Congo. The study uses data from the 2011 Congolese Household Survey (CHS). Estimation of vulnerability to poverty and modelling of the effect of the health shock on expected future consumption are performed using the three-step feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) method. This method is also used to identify the socio-demographic determinants of vulnerability. On average, 26.8% of households are vulnerable to poverty in Congo. Health shocks accentuate this vulnerability. Households living in rural areas are more vulnerable to poverty than those in urban areas. Furthermore, household size and the level of education and marital status of the head of household have an impact on vulnerability. In view of the results obtained, poverty reduction efforts should focus on strategies to develop social safety nets and/or health insurance programmes to stabilize consumption in the event of a health shock in the household.

Suggested Citation

  • Séverin Aimé Blanchard Ouadika, 2020. "Health shocks and vulnerability to poverty in Congo," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 7(1), pages 1-8, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:7:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-020-00674-w
    DOI: 10.1057/s41599-020-00674-w
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-020-00674-w
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41599-020-00674-w?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Martin Browning & Annamaria Lusardi, 1996. "Household Saving: Micro Theories and Micro Facts," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 34(4), pages 1797-1855, December.
    2. Indranil Dutta & James Foster & Ajit Mishra, 2011. "On measuring vulnerability to poverty," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 37(4), pages 743-761, October.
    3. Esso-Hanam Atake, 2018. "Health shocks in Sub-Saharan Africa: are the poor and uninsured households more vulnerable?," Health Economics Review, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 1-13, December.
    4. Ligon, Ethan & Schechter, Laura, 2004. "Evaluating different approaches to estimating vulnerability," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 30159, The World Bank.
    5. Luc J. Christiaensen & Kalanidhi Subbarao, 2005. "Towards an Understanding of Household Vulnerability in Rural Kenya," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 14(4), pages 520-558, December.
    6. Castro-Leal, Florencia & Dayton, Julia & Demery, Lionel & Mehra, Kalpana, 1999. "Public Social Spending in Africa: Do the Poor Benefit?," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 14(1), pages 49-72, February.
    7. Quan-Hoang Vuong & Tung-Manh Ho & Hong-Kong Nguyen & Thu-Trang Vuong, 2018. "Healthcare consumers’ sensitivity to costs: a reflection on behavioural economics from an emerging market," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 4(1), pages 1-10, December.
    8. Doris Wiesmann & Johannes Jütting, 2000. "The emerging movement of community based health insurance in sub-Saharan Africa: Experiences and lessons learned," Africa Spectrum, Institute of African Affairs, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, vol. 35(2), pages 193-210.
    9. Abhijit V. Banerjee & Esther Duflo, 2008. "What Is Middle Class about the Middle Classes around the World?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 22(2), pages 3-28, Spring.
    10. Masha F. Somi & James R. G. Butler & Farshid Vahid & Joseph D. Njau & Salim Abdulla, 2009. "Household responses to health risks and shocks: A study from rural Tanzania raises some methodological issues," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(2), pages 200-211.
    11. Hoddinott, John & Quisumbing, Agnes, 2003. "Methods for microeconometric risk and vulnerability assessments," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 29138, The World Bank.
    12. Deaton, Angus, 1992. "Understanding Consumption," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198288244.
    13. Yuan Zhang & Guanghua Wan, 2008. "Can We Predict Vulnerability to Poverty?," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2008-82, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    14. Amemiya, Takeshi, 1977. "The Maximum Likelihood and the Nonlinear Three-Stage Least Squares Estimator in the General Nonlinear Simultaneous Equation Model," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 45(4), pages 955-968, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vo, Thang T., 2018. "Household vulnerability as expected poverty in Vietnam," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 10, pages 1-14.
    2. Maike Hohberg & Katja Landau & Thomas Kneib & Stephan Klasen & Walter Zucchini, 2018. "Vulnerability to poverty revisited: Flexible modeling and better predictive performance," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 16(3), pages 439-454, September.
    3. Muhammad Masood Azeem & Amin W. Mugera & Steven Schilizzi & Kadambot H. M. Siddique, 2017. "An Assessment of Vulnerability to Poverty in Punjab, Pakistan: Subjective Choices of Poverty Indicators," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 134(1), pages 117-152, October.
    4. Celidoni, Martina, 2011. "Vulnerability to poverty: An empirical comparison of alternative measures," MPRA Paper 33002, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Emiliano Magrini & Pierluigi Montalbano, 2012. "Trade openness and vulnerability to poverty: Vietnam in the long-run (1992-2008)," Working Paper Series 3512, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    6. Million Sileshi & Reuben Kadigi & Khamaldin Mutabazi & Stefan Sieber, 2019. "Analysis of households’ vulnerability to food insecurity and its influencing factors in East Hararghe, Ethiopia," Journal of Economic Structures, Springer;Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies (PAPAIOS), vol. 8(1), pages 1-17, December.
    7. Novignon, Jacob, 2010. "Estimating household vulnerability to poverty from cross section data: an empirical evidence from Ghana," MPRA Paper 39900, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Esso-Hanam Atake, 2018. "Health shocks in Sub-Saharan Africa: are the poor and uninsured households more vulnerable?," Health Economics Review, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 1-13, December.
    9. Mauricio Gallardo, 2018. "Identifying Vulnerability To Poverty: A Critical Survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(4), pages 1074-1105, September.
    10. Katja Landau & Stephan Klasen & Walter Zucchini, 2012. "Measuring Vulnerability to Poverty Using Long-Term Panel Data," Courant Research Centre: Poverty, Equity and Growth - Discussion Papers 118, Courant Research Centre PEG.
    11. Maria S. Floro & Javier Bronfman, 2012. "How Well have Social Protection Schemes in Chile Reduced Household Vulnerability?," Working Papers 2012-03, American University, Department of Economics.
    12. Lei He & Shuyi Zhou, 2024. "Measuring household vulnerability to medical expenditure shock: method and its empirical application," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 465-480, September.
    13. Zereyesus, Yacob & Embaye, Weldensie & Tsiboe, Francis & Amanor-Boadu, Vincent, 2016. "Participation in non-farm work and vulnerability to food poverty of households in northern Ghana," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 235741, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    14. Günther, Isabel & Harttgen, Kenneth, 2009. "Estimating Households Vulnerability to Idiosyncratic and Covariate Shocks: A Novel Method Applied in Madagascar," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(7), pages 1222-1234, July.
    15. Emiliano Magrini & Mauro Vigani, 2016. "Technology adoption and the multiple dimensions of food security: the case of maize in Tanzania," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 8(4), pages 707-726, August.
    16. Hill, Ruth Vargas & Porter, Catherine, 2017. "Vulnerability to Drought and Food Price Shocks: Evidence from Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 65-77.
    17. Isabel Günther & Johannes K. Maier, 2014. "Poverty, Vulnerability, and Reference-Dependent Utility," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(1), pages 155-181, March.
    18. Deressa, Temesgen T. & Hassan, Rashid M. & Ringler, Claudia, 2009. "Assessing household vulnerability to climate change: The case of farmers in the Nile Basin of Ethiopia," IFPRI discussion papers 935, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    19. Anh Thu Quang Pham & Pundarik Mukhopadhaya & Ha Vu, 2021. "Estimating poverty and vulnerability to monetary and non-monetary poverty: the case of Vietnam," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 61(6), pages 3125-3177, December.
    20. Luis López-Calva & Eduardo Ortiz-Juarez, 2014. "A vulnerability approach to the definition of the middle class," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 12(1), pages 23-47, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:7:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-020-00674-w. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.nature.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.