Does Land Certification Mitigate the Negative Impact of Weather Shocks? Evidence from Rural Ethiopia

Abstract

This study examines the effects of weather shocks on household consumption and how the land registration and certification program facilitate coping strategies to mitigate the negative income shocks. Using the difference-in-differences (DID) approach and household panel data from Ethiopia, we find that weather shocks negatively affected household consumption expenditure. As expected, households are not able to protect themselves from weather shocks. However, the land certification program facilitated coping strategies (obtaining credit and receiving gifts and assistance from informal sources) to mitigate the negative effect on food consumption against weather shocks. This effect is only found among smaller landowners. Therefore, the program is pro-poor and beneficial for improving the welfare of poorer households and protecting vulnerable households from entering into poverty traps.