Women’s labour supply and household insurance in Africa

A vast literature discusses risk and informal insurance in poor countries in general and in Africa in particular (Dercon 2004). Incomes are low and uncertain, and most households have limited access to credit (Morduch 1995) or to formal insurance mechanisms such as unemployment benefits (van Ours and Vodopivec 2006). As a result, even if income shocks are transitory, they often have irreversible consequences.