Review of Grimm, 2010

Research article review: Mortality Shocks and Survivors’ Consumption Growth

The main issue discussed in this article is the relationship between mortality and consumption of resources. The main relationship discussed is that the incidence of mortality causes family income and the available resources to reduce. This relationship was at looked from different angles and the effect of mortality on consumption and saving habits were analyzed.

According to Grimm (2010), households that lost a family member adopted some coping mechanism depending on the status of the deceased family member. Some of the coping mechanisms for mortality in a household include reduced consumption, consumption of savings, increased work hours, asking for financial support from friends, other family members or credit houses and selling of assets to meet up immediate family needs. The status of the family member is important as well as the cause of death. Non-health related deaths incur fewer additional expenses to the family compared to health related deaths. The additional expenses incurred by health related deaths include medical bills. Another factor considered was the death of an income earner, especially adult males and/or females, compared to the death of a non-income earner, especially children and elderly/retired individuals. The death of an income earner, either health or non-health related, leads to reduction of income and depletion of available resources and this would cause the surviving family members to adopt coping mechanisms to raise money to either cover up costs or to meet up with previous standards. One major coping mechanism is to cut expenses and to save up incase of an unexpected emergency. Another major mechanism is to increase labour supply in the family by either looking for a job or increasing working hours (Figure 1). Grimm looked at other studies that compared income and resource management with a negative illness shock. Most of the studies concluded that,...