Understanding how different households cope with COVID-19 among a vulnerable population is important for the policy design aiming at relieving hunger and poverty in a low income setting. This paper uses original household data from five waves of a phone survey conducted between May 2020 and June 2021 in Kenya (sample size 31,715) and investigates the gender differences in household coping strategies during the COVID-19 shock. It finds that female-headed households are less likely to cope by selling assets or taking loans, compared with male-headed households. Instead, femaleheaded households rely more on social networks to cope. No difference in coping by reducing meals is observed across these two types of households. This paper documents that the reasons behind the gender difference include that female-headed households are poorer, and they are more likely to rely on friends and family to cope with shocks even prior to the COVID-19 shock. The findings suggest that widowed and divorced women are in high need of relief programs, and governments should provide easily accessible loans to avoid negative impacts in the long term from households selling assets.
Details
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Author
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Document Date
2022/03/07
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Document Type
Policy Research Working Paper
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Report Number
WPS9959
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Volume No
1
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Total Volume(s)
1
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Country
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Region
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Disclosure Date
2022/03/07
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Disclosure Status
Disclosed
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Doc Name
Gender Differences in Household Coping Strategies for COVID-19 in Kenya
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Keywords
gender difference; female head; coping strategy; female-headed household; household head; social network; family transfer; household head age; Poverty and Equity; male-headed one; Social Sciences; survey data; standard error; sensitivity analysis; intimate partner violence; gender inequalities; Gender Inequality; negative shock; high probability; household consumption expenditure; conditional cash transfer; low income economy; analysis of poverty; million people; public transport passenger; household budget survey; random number generator; change in behavior; cash transfer program; power of woman; nationally representative survey; number of adults; level of wealth; global income inequality; linear probability model; stock market crash; sustainable development goals; economics of gender; expenditure on food; millennium development goal; family and friends; sale of asset
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Citation
Xu,Yuanwei Delius,Antonia Johanna Sophie Pape,Utz Johann
Gender Differences in Household Coping Strategies for COVID-19 in Kenya (English). Policy Research working paper,no. WPS 9959,COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Washington, D.C. : World Bank Group. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/861451646668280669/Gender-Differences-in-Household-Coping-Strategies-for-COVID-19-in-Kenya