The Impacts of Prime-Age Adult Mortality on Rural Household Income, Assets, and Poverty in Mozambique

Using a three-year panel of 4,058 Mozambican households surveyed in 2002 and 2005, we measure how PA adult mortality due to illness affects rural household size and number of adult members, crop and non-farm income, total household income, and asset levels. First difference estimations indicate that the effects of PA mortality vary considerably by the gender and household position of the deceased individual as well as by region. Results show that significant reductions in household size, income, and assets are more likely found in the event of a PA male death rather than a PA female death. In the North/Center of the country, a PA male head death can result in loss of 25% of crop income; in the South, such a death results in an average loss of 88% of non-farm income. In spite of these significant reductions in income, we do not find significant reductions in total income per AE among affected households, and they are not more likely to have ex post income/AE below the expenditure-based poverty line relative to non-affected households. However, due to significant asset losses and lower ex post landholding/AE relative to the non-affected population, affected households may be increasingly vulnerable to adverse income and assets shocks, especially those households that have suffered a PA male death.