In this uncertain era of climate change, any strategy that can increase farm yield in resource-poor, rain-fed, agriculture-dependent regions, like sub-Saharan Africa, should be explored. Our study takes place in Namibia, a typical sub-Saharan African country exhibiting dry and vulnerable characteristics. Our estimation strategy is robust to selection bias caused by unobserved systematic differences and further validated by robustness tests to estimate the impact of joint decision-making on farm productivity and household outcomes.

Households in developing countries are subject to considerable risk and shocks, but most don’t have the ability to deal with them using formal mechanisms. We use five rounds of South African NIDS panel data and investigate the impact of shocks on the mental health of individuals. We find that experiencing idiosyncratic shocks, such as the death of a supportive family member and loss of assets, has significant negative impacts on mental health.