IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/col/000090/002834.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Income Volatility, Risk-Coping Behavior and Consumption Smoothing Mechanisms in Developing Countries: A Survey

Author

Listed:
  • Baez Javier Eduardo

Abstract

This paper provides a review of the general concepts and infl uential fi ndings of empirical research on risk-coping behavior and consumption smoothing arrangements in rural economies of developing countries. Low-income individuals live with high levels of risk and limited access to formal fi nancial systems for credit and insurance. In general, the evidence indicates that their informal mechanisms to mitigate risk play an important role in partially protecting their consumption. However, these alternatives do not allow rural households to achieve an optimal allocation of risk across time and income cycles and are costly on equity grounds. In addition, risks that remain uninsured seem to have adverse long term welfare consequences. Public interventions can play a signifi cant role in improving the income security of rural households. In doing so, it is crucial to have a good understanding of the causes and not simply the symptoms of informal risk-coping behavior and its social welfare implications.

Suggested Citation

  • Baez Javier Eduardo, 2006. "Income Volatility, Risk-Coping Behavior and Consumption Smoothing Mechanisms in Developing Countries: A Survey," Revista Desarrollo y Sociedad, Universidad de los Andes,Facultad de Economía, CEDE, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:col:000090:002834
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://economia.uniandes.edu.co/revistadys/Articulo58_7.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. Siwan Anderson & Jean-Marie Baland, 2002. "The Economics of Roscas and Intrahousehold Resource Allocation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(3), pages 963-995.
    3. Altonji, Joseph G & Hayashi, Fumio & Kotlikoff, Laurence J, 1992. "Is the Extended Family Altruistically Linked? Direct Tests Using Micro Data," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(5), pages 1177-1198, December.
    4. Ambec, Stefan & Treich, Nicolas, 2007. "Roscas as financial agreements to cope with self-control problems," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 120-137, January.
    5. Alderman, Harold & Garcia, Marito, 1993. "Poverty, household food security, and nutrition in rural Pakistan:," Research reports 96, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    6. Siwan Anderson & Jean-Marie Baland, 2002. "The Economics of Roscas and Intrahousehold Resource Allocation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(3), pages 963-995.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Diana De Alwis & Ilan Noy, 2019. "Sri Lankan households a decade after the Indian Ocean tsunami," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(2), pages 1000-1026, May.
    2. Anil Shrestha & Makoto Kakinaka, 2022. "Remittance Inflows and Energy Transition of the Residential Sector in Developing Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-19, August.
    3. Skoufias, Emmanuel & Vinha, Katja, 2012. "Climate variability and child height in rural Mexico," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 54-73.
    4. Baez, Javier E. & de la Fuente, Alejandro & Santos, Indhira, 2010. "Do Natural Disasters Affect Human Capital? An Assessment Based on Existing Empirical Evidence," IZA Discussion Papers 5164, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Piti Disyatat & Chayawadee Chai-anant, 2007. "Challenges to Managing Risk and Volatility in the Emerging Market Context," Working Papers 2007-01, Monetary Policy Group, Bank of Thailand.
    6. Monica Ospina, 2010. "CCT programs for consumption insurance: evidence from Colombia," Documentos de Trabajo de Valor Público 10612, Universidad EAFIT.
    7. Emmanuel Skoufias, 2012. "The Poverty and Welfare Impacts of Climate Change Quantifying the Effects, Identifying the Adaptation Strategies," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 9384, December.
    8. Diana De Alwis & Ilan Noy, 2019. "Sri Lankan households a decade after the Indian Ocean tsunami," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(2), pages 1000-1026, May.
    9. Aeggarchat Sirisankanan, 2023. "Natural circumstances and farm labor supply adjustment: the response of the farm labor supply to permanent and transitory natural events," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(9), pages 9935-9961, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Margherita Comola & Marcel Fafchamps, 2014. "Testing Unilateral and Bilateral Link Formation," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 124(579), pages 954-976, September.
    2. Kedir, Abbi M. & Disney, Richard & Dasgupta, Indraneel, 2011. "Why Use ROSCAs When You Can Use Banks? Theory and Evidence from Ethiopia," IZA Discussion Papers 5767, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Karna Basu, 2011. "Hyperbolic Discounting and the Sustainability of Rotational Savings Arrangements," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(4), pages 143-171, November.
    4. Jesse Atkinson & Alain de Janvry & Craig McIntosh & Elisabeth Sadoulet, 2013. "Prompting Microfinance Borrowers to Save: A Field Experiment from Guatemala," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 62(1), pages 21-64.
    5. Dalla Pellegrina, Lucia & De Michele, Angela & Di Maio, Giorgio & Landoni, Paolo, 2021. "Fostering savings by commitment: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment at The Small Enterprise Foundation in South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    6. AMANKWAH, ERNEST & Gockel, Fritz Augustine & Osei-Assibey, Eric, 2019. "Pareto Superior dimension of Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAs) in Ghana: Evidence from Asunafo North Municipality of Ghana," MPRA Paper 96308, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Sedai, Ashish Kumar & Vasudevan, Ramaa & Alves Pena, Anita, 2021. "Friends and benefits? Endogenous rotating savings and credit associations as alternative for women’s empowerment in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    8. T Le Cotty & E Maître d’Hôtel & R Soubeyran & J Subervie, 2019. "Inventory Credit as a Commitment Device to Save Grain Until the Hunger Season," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 101(4), pages 1115-1139.
    9. Buehren, Niklas, 2011. "Allocating Cash Savings and the Role of Information: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Uganda," Proceedings of the German Development Economics Conference, Berlin 2011 16, Verein für Socialpolitik, Research Committee Development Economics.
    10. Carlsson, Fredrik & Yang, Xiaojun, 2013. "Intertemporal Choice Shifts in Households: Do they occur and are they good?," Working Papers in Economics 569, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    11. Rachel Cassidy & Marcel Fafchamps, 2015. "Can community-based microfinance groups match savers with borrowers? Evidence from rural Malawi," CSAE Working Paper Series 2015-13, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    12. Eun Jin Ryu & Aya Suzuki, 2021. "ROSCAS as Insurance: Comparing Formal and Informal Methods of Saving among the Unskilled Workers in the Ethiopian Cut‐Flower Industry," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 59(3), pages 243-274, September.
    13. Olivier Dagnelie & Philippe Lemay‐Boucher, 2012. "Rosca Participation in Benin: A Commitment Issue," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 74(2), pages 235-252, April.
    14. Steinert, Janina Isabel & Vasumati Satish, Rucha & Stips, Felix & Vollmer, Sebastian, 2022. "Commitment or concealment? Impacts and use of a portable saving device: Evidence from a field experiment in urban India," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 367-398.
    15. Mukhopadhyay, Ujjaini & Chaudhuri, Sarbajit, 2011. "Economic liberalization, gender wage inequality and welfare – a theoretical analysis," MPRA Paper 32954, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Patrick Behr & Jorge Jacob, 2024. "Neighbourhood social capital, account usage and savings behaviour in low‐income countries: Field experimental evidence from Senegal," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(1), pages 84-108, January.
    17. Baland, Jean-Marie & Guirkinger, Catherine & Hartwig, Renate, 2019. "Now or later? The allocation of the pot and the insurance motive in fixed roscas," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 1-11.
    18. Rabie, Dina, 2021. "RoSCAs in Egypt: A Banking Institution or a Commitment Device?," ILE Working Paper Series 52, University of Hamburg, Institute of Law and Economics.
    19. Linkow, Benjamin, 2009. "Fraying of the Ties that Bind: HIV/AIDS and Informal Contract Enforcement in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa," MPRA Paper 21769, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Olivier Dagnelie & Philippe LeMay-Boucher, 2007. "ROSCA Participation in Benin: A Commitment Issue," CERT Discussion Papers 0708, Centre for Economic Reform and Transformation, Heriot Watt University.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:col:000090:002834. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Universidad De Los Andes-Cede (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ceandco.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.