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Measuring Individual Vulnerability

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Author Info
Cesar Calvo
Stefan Dercon

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Abstract

Standard poverty analysis makes statements about deprivation after the veil of uncertainty has been lifted. This implies that there is no meaningful role for risk as part of an assessment of potentially low states of well-being. In this paper, we introduce a concept of vulnerability, as a threat of poverty, with downside risk at its core. More specifically, we define a vulnerability measure as an assessment of the magnitude of the threat of poverty, measured ex-ante, before uncertainty is resolved. We describe the welfare-economic foundations for desirable properties of a vulnerability measure and assess to what extent some measures used in empirical work abide by them. We also present two families of measures that are fully consistent with our axiomatic approach.

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Paper provided by University of Oxford, Department of Economics in its series Economics Series Working Papers with number 229.

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Date of creation: 2005
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Handle: RePEc:oxf:wpaper:229

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Related research
Keywords: Poverty; Risk; Vulnerability; Welfare Axioms;

Find related papers by JEL classification:
O12 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
I3 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare and Poverty

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Ravallion, Martin, 1988. "Expected Poverty under Risk-Induced Welfare Variability," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 98(393), pages 1171-82, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Chris Elbers & Jan Willem Gunning & Bill Kinsey, 2007. "Growth and Risk: Methodology and Micro Evidence," World Bank Economic Review, Oxford University Press, vol. 21(1), pages 1-20.
    Other versions:
  3. Christiaensen, Luc. J. & Subbarao, Kalanidhi, 2004. "Toward an understanding of household vulnerability in rural Kenya," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3326, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  4. Gamanou, Gisele & Morduch, Jonathan, 2002. "Measuring Vulnerability to Poverty," Working Papers UNU-WIDER Research Paper , World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER). [Downloadable!]
  5. Shubham Chaudhuri & Jyotsna Jalan & Asep Suryahadi, 2002. "Assessing household vulnerability to poverty from cross-sectional data: A methodology and estimates from Indonesia," Discussion Papers 0102-52, Columbia University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  6. Atkinson, A B, 1987. "On the Measurement of Poverty," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(4), pages 749-64, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Amin, Sajeda & Rai, Ashok S. & Topa, Giorgio, 2003. "Does microcredit reach the poor and vulnerable? Evidence from northern Bangladesh," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 59-82, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Foster, James & Greer, Joel & Thorbecke, Erik, 1984. "A Class of Decomposable Poverty Measures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(3), pages 761-66, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Asep Suryahadi & Sudarno Sumarto, 2003. "Poverty and Vulnerability in Indonesia Before and After the Economic Crisis," Asian Economic Journal, East Asian Economic Association, vol. 17(1), pages 45-64, 03. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Ethan Ligon & Laura Schechter, 2003. "Measuring Vulnerability," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 113(486), pages C95-C102, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Sen, Amartya K, 1976. "Poverty: An Ordinal Approach to Measurement," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 44(2), pages 219-31, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Kaushik Basu & Patrick Nolen, 2006. "Vulnerability, Unemployment and Poverty: A Class of Distribution and Sensitive Measures, Its Axiomatic Properties and Applications," Economics Discussion Papers 623, University of Essex, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  2. Stefan Dercon (QEH), . "Vulnerability: a micro perspective," QEH Working Papers qehwps149, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford. [Downloadable!]
  3. Jean-Yves Duclos & Abdelkrim Araar & John Giles, 2006. "Chronic and Transient Poverty: Measurement and Estimation, with Evidence from China," IZA Discussion Papers 2078, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. repec:ese:iserwp: is not listed on IDEAS
  5. de la Fuente, Alejandro, 2008. "Remittances and Vulnerability to Poverty in Rural Mexico," Working Papers RP2008/17, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER). [Downloadable!]
  6. Stefan Dercon (QEH), . "Risk, Growth and Poverty: what do we know, what do we need to know?," QEH Working Papers qehwps148, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford. [Downloadable!]
  7. Takashi Kurosaki, 2006. "The measurement of transient poverty: Theory and application to Pakistan," Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer, vol. 4(3), pages 325-345, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Kenneth Harttgen & Isabel Günther, 2007. "Estimating Vulnerability to Covariate and Idiosyncratic Shocks," Ibero America Institute for Econ. Research (IAI) Discussion Papers 154, Ibero-America Institute for Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
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