| This paper assesses the impact of the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) on the food security outcomes of female-headed households in Ethiopia. Using data from the Ethiopian Rural Household Surveys (EHRS) for 2009, the present study tests whether the PSNP reported worse food security outcomes for female-headed households, compared to male-headed households. Ordinary Least Square results show that being a female-headed household that receives PSNP benefits has a positive effect on one of the food security outcomes, since this reduces the probability of having a food shortage. However, since access to the PSNP was not randomized Propensity Score Matching (PSM) had to be used instead. PSM techniques revealed that the program had no impact on female-headed households. A statistically significant impact of the Program was found in male-headed households and in overall households. However, the effect was the opposite, since the PSNP worsened food security outcomes in analyzed households. Although this paper shows that the PSNP is not very effective at addressing food insecurity, it also suggests that more studies are needed to find further explanations of the Program's effects. We do not know if all PSNP beneficiaries actually receive all the benefits they are supposed to get, nor we know whether they receive any benefits in a timely fashion. Moreover, our Program variable does not indicate the amount of money or the volume of food received. Therefore, the failure of the PSNP could not be related to the Program itself but to its poor implementation. |
