To study _harmful food coping_ at the household level, we measure the extent of adverse food-related coping behaviors via the Reduced Coping Strategies Index (rCSI) (Maxwell and Caldwell, 2008). The rCSI is based on five different coping behaviors at the household level, and reflects both the frequency of each behavior (on how many of the last 7 days it occurred) and its severity (how strongly it threatens a household’s well-being). The specific survey questions are: _Over the last 7 days, how many days did your household ..._

- _a) ... rely on less preferred and less expensive food? (severity weight (sw) = 1)_

- _b) ... borrow food or money for food from friends or relatives? (sw = 2)_

- _c) ... limit portion size at mealtimes for all household members? (sw = 1)_

- _d) ... restrict consumption by adults in order for small children to eat? (sw = 3) e) ... reduce the number of meals eaten in a day for all household members? (sw = 1)_

For each item, the number of days is multiplied with severity weight. In turn, the rCSI score is the sum of these five values. Therefore, the maximum raw score for the rCSI is 56, and households with scores above 10 can be considered “severely food insecure” (Vaitla, Coates and Maxwell, 2015). In the main analysis, we use a standardized rCSI, with zero mean and unit standard deviation.

Our main indicator of economic activity among adults equals one if an individual (age > 14) is engaged in at least one of the following five forms of work in the past 7 days: 1) paid labor for someone else; 2) unpaid labor in an off-farm family business; 3) non-agricultural self-employment; 4) agricultural self-employment; and 5) participation in unpaid training or workshops to foster skills. Each item was asked separately and independently to all individuals (age > 14), and we also analyze the binary indicators of each category separately.

The _school attendance_ indicator equals one if an individual is currently attending school (or college). Note that school attendance is nominally compulsory up to the age of 14 in Nigeria. We thus chose age 14 as the cut-off point for school attendance and employment alike.

**Gender and household composition indicators.** The female indicator at the individual level equals one if an individual is female. Our primary indicator at the household level equals one when the household head is female, which has traditionally been a key indicator in academic studies and in policy and practice. To go beyond the headship level, we use the very detailed, sex-disaggregated survey data to construct other key measures of gender and composition at the household level, and thus provide a more nuanced assessment of the role of gender (Hanmer et al. 2021; Klugman, 2022). Based on age, we study a dependency difference indicator, which is the difference between the number of adults and the number of children in the household. Based on gender, we study a gender difference indicator, which is the difference between the number of female and male members in the household. Based on gender and age, we study age-specific indicators of gender differences, for example the difference between the number of boys and girls in the household. Based on gender, age and employment information, we study a gender difference indicator in economic activity, which is the difference between the number of economically active women and men in the household.

7