We collect panel data on income, consumption, bilateral transfers, and kin linkage for a full sample of villagers in Malawi, covering five waves of 387 distinct households between 2022 and 2024. Using this data set, we document an active informal transfer network, with households engaging in an average of 0.8 weekly inter-household food and monetary transfers. While 64% of transfers occur among kin, transfers between kin do not respond to negative income shocks. This pattern arises partly because income and income shocks are more correlated among kins. Among transfers, only transfers from Ganyu labor response to negative income shocks, while other types of transfers, including those from the government, NGO, and remittances, do not. This finding is consistent with the literature finding that elastic labor supply is an important source of insurance.

Ying Feng is an Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore. Her research interests are in macroeconomics, economic development, and labor economics. Her work has been published in The Economic Journal, Journal of Development Economics and Economics Letters. She received her Ph.D. degree in economics from the University of California San Diego in 2019.