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Risk-Sharing Networks in Rural Philippines

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  • Marcel Fafchamps
  • Susan Lund

Abstract

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Marcel Fafchamps & Susan Lund, 2000. "Risk-Sharing Networks in Rural Philippines," Economics Series Working Papers 10, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
  • Handle: RePEc:oxf:wpaper:10
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    risk sharing; informal credit; insurance; gifts; consumption smoothing;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • Q12 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets

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