Household Vulnerability And Resilience To Shocks In Egypt

A growing body of literature points to the role of exposure to shocks in reducing economic resilience. While all households are negatively affected by various shocks, poor households are more likely to be exposed to different risks. This paper uses the 2018 round of the Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey (ELMPS) to examine the nature of shocks experienced by different socioeconomic groups of households and the ex-post coping mechanisms that were adopted. The results show that almost a quarter of the Egyptian households experienced food insecurity either solely or in combination with shocks. Economic shocks were the most common distress followed by health shocks during the year preceding the ELMPS interview. Household used consumption rationing or depended on their social capital as a coping mechanism in response to a shock or food insecurity. Households whose heads had less than intermediate education, or worked in the informal private sector or agriculture, or were self-employed were more likely to have experienced a shock. Also, households residing in rural areas, particularly in Upper Egypt, or with large family size were more vulnerable to shocks during the study period.