Interpretation of rural savings behaviour: a cautionary tale

✍ Scribed by Stephen Morse; Nora McNamara

• Book ID: 101288873
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 163 KB
• Volume: 12
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0954-1748
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1328(200001)12:1<29::aid-jid575>3.0.co;2-t

✦ Synopsis

A number of studies have explored the relationship between uncertainty and savings behaviour amongst resource-poor farmers. This paper describes the results of such a study for ®ve villages in the Ibaji area of Igalaland, Kogi State, Nigeria. Savings behaviour over a 20-year period was examined in the face of two severe types of shock: ¯ooding and land war. The results suggest that although the macroeconomic climate in Nigeria could explain some general trends in savings behaviour, some clear peaks in activity were not due to shocks but to operational changes introduced by the nongovernment organization facilitating the savings scheme Ð the Diocesan Development Services (DDS). The results suggest that great care needs to be taken when interpreting such time-series data, especially as one peak in savings activity corresponded with the period of the land war.