AGROCLIMATIC SHOCK, INCOME INEQUALITY, AND POVERTY - EVIDENCE FROM BURKINA-FASO

This paper examines the impacts of agroclimatic shock on income inequa lity and poverty, using household-farm data from three agroecological zones of Burkina Faso together with income-source decompositions of th e Gini coefficient and the Foster-Greer-Thorbecke poverty index before and after a severe drought. Our findings reveal that, because the poo r lack acces to off-farm income, off-farm income increases inequality and fails to shield poor households against agroclimatic risks. The di rection of the empirical relationship between changes in inequality an d poverty after the drought depends critically on environmental variab les and on apparent constraints on income diversification at different points in the income distribution. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Scienc e Ltd