Welfare impacts of climate shocks: Evidence from Tanzania
This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the impact of weather risk on rural households’ welfare in Tanzania using nationally representative household panel data together with a set of novel weather variation indicators. This document estimates the impact of weather shocks on a rich set of welfare indicators and investigates whether and how they vary by different definitions of shocks - capturing changes in levels and variations over different time periods.
The results highlight that both rainfall and maximum temperature variability, measured by the inter-seasonal standard deviation, appear to exert a negative impact on the outcome indicators. They highlight the potential role of Sustainable Land Management (SLM) practices in acting as ex-ante weather-risk coping strategies. In this context, extension services may enhance adaptive capacity and, as a consequence, reduce rural households vulnerability to adverse weather conditions.