An empirical investigation of the dynamic linkages of land access and food security: Evidence from Ethiopia using system GMM approach

Abstract

In this work, we empirically investigate how land acquisition and food security interact dynamically in Ethiopia's rural and small-town areas. Apparently, connections between the two issues getting more attention, yet dynamic links between them remain unexplored. This paper utilizes a moment-based generalized systems approach (SYS-GMM), and tests in panel data models. The results of system GMM estimates using data for 3288 households from 2011–12 to 2018–19 confirm that the lagged dependent variables were negative (-1.359) with statistically significant, which justifies the specification of the dynamic panel model and the adoption of the two-step system-GMM for estimating DPD analysis, which further validates the dynamic adjustment process and the lagged effect. It also confirmed that adult equivalence (a proxy for family size, and tropical livestock unit all exhibit elastic relationships i.e., −3.101 and 1.23 respectively at a 1% level of significance, while the other statistically significant predictors were found to have an inelastic relationship with food security (<1). Here, the response of food security to changes in a household's total livestock assets, adult equivalence, and yearly food consumption per adult equivalence is quick, as a proportionate change in these variables would result in a higher proportionate change in the level of a household's food security. The study further revealed that families with female heads (FHHs) experience more food insecurity than households with male heads. FHHs, however, are 11% less likely than male-headed families to be food secure. The results are further confirmed using different diagnostic tests which include serial correlation and Sargan/Hansen tests. The results are further confirmed using different diagnostic tests which include serial correlation and Sargan/Hansen tests. The robustness of the GMM results was confirmed by the pooled OLS, difference GMM, and the fixed effect model results. To this end, interventions and policies should be adopted to decrease the food insecurity of households in the long run in Ethiopia.