Risk-Sharing Networks in Rural Philippines

Using detailed data on gifts, loans, and asset sales, this paper investigates how rural Filipino households deal with income and expenditure shocks. We find that shocks have a strong effect on gifts and informal loans, but little effect on sales of livestock and grain. Mutual insurance does not appear to take place at the village level; rather, households receive help primarily through networks of friends and relatives. Certain shocks are better insured than others. The evidence is consistent with models of quasi-credit where risk is shared within tightly knit networks through flexible, zero interest informal loans combined with pure transfers.