Malde, Bansi
(2017).
Characterising informal risk sharing in family networks: Group size and informal risk sharing in Malawi.
[Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex:
UK Data Archive.
10.5255/UKDA-SN-852156
Risk is extremely prevalent in rural areas of developing countries, but markets for credit and insurance are undeveloped and government-provided social insurance is very rare. Households in these contexts resort to informal tools, such as gifts and inter-personal transfers, to share idiosyncratic risk. Such informal risk sharing occurs within social networks, with family networks, particularly, forming a “natural” risk sharing institution.
This research aims to deepen our understanding of risk sharing in family networks, focusing explicitly on the role of network structure (representation of who is related to who). This is likely important because many informal tools employed for risk sharing rely on bilateral relationships. Therefore, who one is linked with and who their links are further linked with will shape both how risk is shared and the amount shared.
Specifically, this research uses unique data from Mexico and Malawi with information on family ties and socio-economic variables to:
1. Provide empirical evidence on the relevance of socially close and distant connections for risk sharing
2. Evaluate the empirical importance of the quantity and quality of connections for risk sharing
3. Investigate effectiveness of family connections in providing insurance when sub-sets of them can walk away from an informal arrangement
Data description (abstract)
This dataset contains the analysis data file for the paper "Group Size and Efficiency of Informal Risk Sharing" by Fitzsimons, Malde and Vera-Hernandez (2015). It investigates how household consumption varies in response to crop losses by the number of extended family relatives of the household head and spouse in rural Malawi. A second related ReShare depository titled "Characterising risk sharing in extended family networks: Socially close and distant connections" includes files associated with another study conducted under the same grant using data on extended family in rural Mexico.
Data creators: |
Creator Name |
Affiliation |
ORCID (as URL) |
Malde Bansi |
Institute for Fiscal Studies |
|
|
Contributors: |
Name |
Affiliation |
ORCID (as URL) |
Vera-Hernandez M |
Institute for Fiscal Studies |
|
|
Sponsors: |
Economic and Social Research Council
|
Grant reference: |
ES/K00123X/1
|
Topic classification: |
Economics
|
Keywords: |
risk, insurance, extended family, malawi
|
Project title: |
Characterising Informal Risk Sharing in Family Networks
|
Grant holders: |
Bansi Malde
|
Project dates: |
From | To |
---|
1 October 2012 | 30 September 2015 |
|
Date published: |
14 Jul 2016 09:55
|
Last modified: |
12 Apr 2017 15:48
|
Collection period: |
Date from: | Date to: |
---|
1 November 2008 | 31 January 2010 |
|
Geographical area: |
Mchinji, Malawi |
Country: |
Malawi |
Spatial unit: |
Other |
Data collection method: |
Face-to-face interviews |
Observation unit: |
Household, Geographic unit |
Kind of data: |
Numeric, Numeric |
Type of data: |
Cross-national survey data |
Resource language: |
English |
|
Data sourcing, processing and preparation: |
The data were derived from the following primary data: https://discover.ukdataservice.ac.uk/catalogue?sn=6996
We constructed aggregate measures of household consumption, and cleaned many different variables to construct the necessary processed variables for the analysis in this study.
|
Rights owners: |
Name |
Affiliation |
ORCID (as URL) |
Malde Bansi |
Institute for Fiscal Studies |
|
Institute for Fiscal Studies |
|
|
|
Contact: |
Name | Email | Affiliation | ORCID (as URL) |
---|
Malde, Bansi | bansi_m@ifs.org.uk | Institute for Fiscal Studies | Unspecified |
|
Publisher: |
UK Data Archive
|
Last modified: |
12 Apr 2017 15:48
|
|
Available Files
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