Multiple shocks and households’ choice of coping strategies in Benin: The relative importance of climate shocks

Abstract

AbstractThis paper analyzes the extent to which shocks affect household education expenditures and the determinants of shock‐coping strategies in Benin, using the 2017 Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Analysis survey data (14,300 households). The findings indicate that late‐onset/droughts, heavy rainfall/floods, and joblessness of a household member/reduction in income increase the likelihood to spend on education. Moreover, the occurrence of droughts/late onsets and floods/heavy rainfall lead to an increase and a decrease in education expenditures, respectively. Both idiosyncratic and covariate shocks force households to rely on shock‐coping strategies, with the effects of the latter (climate shocks) being among the highest.