3:30 pm - 5:00 pm
Speaker: Tsegaye Ginbo, PDF, University of Alberta, Department of Resource Economics & Environmental Sociology
Title: Intra-Household risk perceptions and climate change adaptations in sub-Saharan Africa
Abstract: We study the effects of spouses’ perceptions of climatic risks on their decisions for climate change adaptation (CCA) and the gender gap in adaptation. Our analysis is based on unique intra-household data from Kenya, Uganda, and Senegal collected in 2013. We exploit the exogenous shocks in rainfall and temperature during the data collection months relative to the past decade’s averages as instruments to address the endogeneity of climate risk perception. Our results show that both female and male spouses’ perceptions of climatic risks increase the likelihood of adopting CCA strategies. In addition, both female and male spouses’ perceptions of climatic risks increase the probability of females’ participation in final adaptation decisions. Moreover, we find that the differences in adoption of CCA strategies between female and male spouses are explained by differences in land ownership and access to climate information, but not the difference in their perceptions of climatic risks. The results are robust across various alternative approaches. Our findings point to the importance of considering spouses’ gender-differentiated behaviors to understand decisions to adopt climate-smart technologies.
Keywords: Climate adaptation, gender gap, climatic risk perception, climate-smart agriculture
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