Mortality shocks and household consumption: the case of Mexico

We study the effect of within-household mortality on the evolution of household per capita consumption. Relying on a panel survey of Mexican households, we find that these households were capable of perfectly smoothing the shock into their consumption caused by the death of a household member. Our findings indicate that a household’s ability to smooth consumption depends neither on the characteristics of the deceased household member nor on the income of a particular household. We find no clear temporal pattern in the evolution of the shock caused by within-household mortality. Our results provide strong support for the hypothesis that the evolution of household consumption is not affected by within-household mortality.