Measuring individual vulnerability
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...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Working paper |
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University of Oxford
2005
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| _version_ | 1797073399538778112 |
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| author | Calvo, C Dercon, S |
| author_facet | Calvo, C Dercon, S |
| author_sort | Calvo, C |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | 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. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-06T23:21:34Z |
| format | Working paper |
| id | oxford-uuid:68e540fb-c201-4b39-9773-ff77f199d520 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-06T23:21:34Z |
| publishDate | 2005 |
| publisher | University of Oxford |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:68e540fb-c201-4b39-9773-ff77f199d5202022-03-26T18:47:59ZMeasuring individual vulnerabilityWorking paperhttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_8042uuid:68e540fb-c201-4b39-9773-ff77f199d520Bulk import via SwordSymplectic ElementsUniversity of Oxford2005Calvo, CDercon, SStandard 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. |
| spellingShingle | Calvo, C Dercon, S Measuring individual vulnerability |
| title | Measuring individual vulnerability |
| title_full | Measuring individual vulnerability |
| title_fullStr | Measuring individual vulnerability |
| title_full_unstemmed | Measuring individual vulnerability |
| title_short | Measuring individual vulnerability |
| title_sort | measuring individual vulnerability |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT calvoc measuringindividualvulnerability AT dercons measuringindividualvulnerability |