Informal care and financial stress: Longitudinal evidence from Australia

The number of people providing informal care has increased considerably in the last years while, at the same time, about one in four Australians have financial stress problems. This study uses rich longitudinal data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey to estimate the effect of informal care on financial stress. To establish causality, we exploit a fixed effect-instrumental variable approach to address omitted variable bias and reverse causality problems. Our findings show that informal caregiving increases financial stress between 9.9 and 14.5 percentage points. This finding is robust across a battery of quasi-experimental methods. The effect of informal caregiving on financial stress is more pronounced among males, rural residents and those living in low socioeconomic areas. Our analyses further show that financial fragility and social isolation are important channels through which informal caregiving affects financial stress.

Psychological profiles of South African smallholder farmers

The present study examined smallholder farmer profiles based on key psychological variables associated with farm business performance in the South African context. A sample of 471 beef farmers (mean age = 54.15 years; SD = 14.46; men = 76%) and 426 poultry farmers (mean age = 47.28 years; SD = 13.53; women = 54.5%) provided data on a range of measures assessing attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, personality characteristics, present and future time orientation, expected benefits of, and efficacy to perform the farm business tasks, and farm-related concerns. Latent profile analysis identified three distinct profile segments of smallholder beef and poultry farmers, respectively: Fatalists, Traditionalists, and Entrepreneurs. Our results suggested unique combinations of psychological characteristics in a sample of South African smallholder beef and poultry farmers and show a novel way of understanding enablers of, and barriers to, engaging in the farm business.

Effect of Financial Literacy on Poverty Reduction Across Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda

Financial literacy can be critical to reducing poverty, but limited evidence exists on the mechanisms of change. Guided by the financial capability framework, this study examines the direct effects of financial literacy on poverty and the indirect effect through financial inclusion and entrepreneurship, using data from wave 5 of the InterMedia Financial Inclusion Insights Program for Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. We also examined how the relationships differ by gender and locality. Overall, the endogeneity-corrected results suggest that an increase in financial literacy is associated with a 6.9% decrease in poverty. We found that entrepreneurship and financial inclusion act as mechanisms of change through which financial literacy decreases poverty, with the findings differing by gender and locality. These findings point to the poverty-reducing effect of financial literacy, mainly in Tanzania, followed by Kenya and Uganda. The results contribute to understanding how financial literacy and poverty interact and can inform contextually relevant interventions and policies.

Mobile money and entrepreneurship in East Africa: the mediating roles of digital savings and access to digital credit

Purpose

This study aims to examine the comparative link between mobile money (MoMo) and entrepreneurship in East Africa. Apart from analysing the data to examine locational, gender and age heterogeneities in the MoMo–entrepreneurship nexus, the authors explore the potential roles of digital savings and access to digital credit in serving as transmission channels in the link between MoMo adoption and entrepreneurship.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses nationally representative samples from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda which were extracted from the fifth wave of the InterMedia Financial Inclusion Insights (FII) Program. The authors employ a suite of quasi-experimental microeconometric techniques—standard instrumental variable estimation, Lewbel two-stage least squares (2SLS) and propensity score matching.

Findings

Overall, the authors’ preferred endogeneity-corrected result suggests that adopters of MoMo are 24.4 percentage points more likely to engage in entrepreneurship. This result is robust to alternative ways of conceptualising MoMo adoption and different methods used in resolving endogeneity. The association between MoMo and entrepreneurship is stronger in Kenya compared to Uganda and not significant in Tanzania. The significant positive association between MoMo and entrepreneurship is observed among women and rural residents and not for their male and urban-located counterparts. MoMo significantly enhances entrepreneurship among the youth and adults but not the elderly. Digital savings and access to digital credit serve as important channels through which FinTech adoption influences entrepreneurship.

Practical implications

The entrepreneurship-enhancing effect of MoMo adoption can be extended to discuss the possibility of employing MoMo as a policy tool to contribute to the attainment of Sustainable Development Goal (SGD) 8 which seeks to ensure full and productive employment and decent work for all. Incomes that accrue from entrepreneurial activities can also increase households' purchasing power to decrease poverty (SDG 1), reduce food insecurity (SDG 2) and provide resources needed to purchase clean and modern cooking and lighting fuels (SGD 7).

Social implications

The growing rate of unemployment and vulnerable employment in Africa has been an issue of concern to policy makers. These problems have been caused by the inability of policy makers to create adequate jobs. The study’s findings show that policies geared towards enhancing the diffusion of MoMo can augment efforts being made by governments to decrease the unemployment rate in Africa through increased entrepreneurship. The employment effect of MoMo can also be realised through the emergence of digital entrepreneurship which has been identified as having the potential to transform African economies to knowledge-based economies for sustainable development.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the MoMo literature by deviating from the focus of existing studies which have emphasised more on the intermediate outcome (performance) and less on the immediate (i.e. entrepreneurship or small business venturing). This helps to highlight the entrepreneurship effect of MoMo which has evolved from a simple peer-to-peer payment system to a complex one that provides savings, credit, insurance and other products.

Parental Time Poverty, Child Work and School Attendance in Ghana

This study examines the relationship between parental time poverty, child work, and school attendance in Ghana using data from the sixth and seventh rounds of the Ghana Living Standard Survey (GLSS6 and GLSS7). Results of the analysis indicate an increasing decline in child enrolment in public schools (from 9% to 6%) among time poor household heads. In addition, parental time poverty increases children's walking hours to and from school and private school enrolment. We observed heterogeneity of parental time poverty on child work in relation to the location of households and gender disaggregation. Child work and school attendance-reducing effect of parental time poverty is mainly prevalent among male children but mixed for location. Our result is robust to the alternative estimation method of addressing endogeneity and further shows that household income is the primary channel through which time poverty influences child work and school attendance.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12187-022-09926-4 10.1007/s12187-022-09926-4.

Introducing the Disease Outbreak Resilience Index (DORI) Using the Demographic and Health Surveys Data from sub-Saharan Africa

Although most studies on disease emergencies underscore the need for household readiness for shocks associated with disease outbreaks, no study to date has provided a holistic measure for profiling households based on their readiness toward disease outbreaks. This paper introduces a novel Disease Outbreak Resilience Index (DORI) using a multidimensional approach that draws on the Alkire-Foster methodology. DORI measures disease outbreak resilience in four dimensions: (a) water and hygiene, (b) physical distancing, (c) energy and communication, and (d) economic security and resilience. The paper details the development of DORI and its use by presenting findings from ten countries in sub-Saharan Africa using data from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) program. In addition to serving as a resilience index, we illustrate how DORI can be used to produce a disease outbreak vulnerability index (DOVI). As a versatile index, the indicators under each dimension can be tailored to meet country- and region-specific contexts based on indicators appropriate to each context.

Effect of financial inclusion on out-of-pocket health expenditure: empirics from Ghana

Empirical evidence on the link between financial inclusion and out-of-pocket health expenditure remains sparse while existing studies have mainly not used a multidimensional financial inclusion index. This study examines the link between financial inclusion and out-of-pocket health expenditure in Ghana using data from the seventh round of the Ghana Living Standards Survey. To ensure robustness in findings, the standard instrumental variable (with external instruments) and Lewbel's heteroskedasticity-based instrumental variable approaches are both applied. Our findings indicate that a standard deviation increase in financial inclusion is associated with an increase in households' out-of-pocket health expenditure between 0.1367 and 1.7608 standard deviations. This finding is more pronounced for female-headed and urban-located households. Financial inclusion has a bigger association with expenses on medical products/appliances than on outpatient services. Policymakers are encouraged to design and implement programs to scale up the level of financial inclusion which has the potential of facilitating demand for health, thereby leading to better health outcomes.