Household resource allocation: implications for poverty alleviation and household welfare during land redistribution

This paper assesses the role played by access to assets in explaining rural household allocation of labour and sources of incomes using a multinomial logit model. To confirm the results we measure the effects of redistribution of assets to assess gains and simulate general equilibrium effects using de Janviy and Sadoulet’s computable non-separable household economic model. We find that land redistribution remains a critical instrument in an asset driven approach to poverty alleviation, but that there might be conflicts between social efficiency and equity in redistributing assets because there are economies of scale in human capital assets and social capital for migration.

A conference paper on household resource allocation to alleviate poverty in rural Zimbabwe. Originally prepared for: "Conference on Zimbabwe: macroeconomic policy, management and performance since independence: lessons for the 21st century," 19-21 August, Sheraton Hotel, Harare.