Gender-Differentiated Impacts of Climate Variability in Ethiopia: A Micro-Simulation Approach

In this paper, we examine the gender-specific effects of climate variability using household level data from rural Ethiopia. In particular, this paper investigates whether female-headed households are more vulnerable to the impacts of climate variability and to what extent policy interventions are effective in improving adaptive capacity of female-headed households. The analysis undertaken in this paper underscores that female-headed households are more vulnerable to the impacts of climate variability compared to male-headed households and the result is mainly explained by the endowment effect. Moreover, adaptation strategies through the adoption of new crop varieties that are resilient and adapted to local conditions are effective in reducing the adverse effect of climate variability for both female and male-headed households.