Poverty and Wellbeing Before and During Covid-19 in Cambodia: an Assessment of Trends and Correlates

Abstract

This study investigates factors affecting welfare prior to and during Covid-19. It employs analysis of the Cambodia Living Standards Measurement—Plus Survey 2019/20 data, alongside five rounds of the Covid-19 High Frequency Phone Surveys between May 2020 and March 2021 to assess socioeconomic impacts of the pandemic.

The results point to a range of factors which could contribute to explaining poverty incidence prior to the pandemic. Household resource endowment was an important correlate of welfare, particularly in terms of possession of a mobile phone, ownership of livestock and land and access to electricity. Other factors include access to financial services, education, involvement in non agriculture businesses, migration and remittances. The role of remittances was particularly pronounced in rural areas and for female heads of households. On the latter, de facto female headship in households with an adult male and in households with a migrant was associated with a lower probability of poverty.