Markus Goldstein

Published June 2004

---

I test a model of Pareto efficient risk sharing within households using consumption data from Ghana. The results reject this model despite showing that individual consumption is not significantly affected by both agricultural and illness shocks. Turning to transfer data, I find evidence that men share risks with both family members and non-family friends when faced with shocks and that women share risk with non-family friends. The form of these arrangements differ based not only on the gender of the individual, but also the type of shock and nature of the transfer.