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Abstract
Using a three-year panel of 4,058 Mozambican households surveyed in 2002 and 2005, we
measure how PA adult mortality due to illness affects rural household size and number of
adult members, crop and non-farm income, total household income, and asset levels. First difference
estimations indicate that the effects of PA mortality vary considerably by the
gender and household position of the deceased individual as well as by region. Results show
that significant reductions in household size, income, and assets are more likely found in the
event of a PA male death rather than a PA female death. In the North/Center of the country,
a PA male head death can result in loss of 25% of crop income; in the South, such a death
results in an average loss of 88% of non-farm income. In spite of these significant reductions
in income, we do not find significant reductions in total income per AE among affected
households, and they are not more likely to have ex post income/AE below the expenditure-based
poverty line relative to non-affected households. However, due to significant asset
losses and lower ex post landholding/AE relative to the non-affected population, affected
households may be increasingly vulnerable to adverse income and assets shocks, especially
those households that have suffered a PA male death.