Vulnerability to poverty

Standard poverty analysis makes statements about deprivation after the veil of uncertainty has been lifted. Nonetheless, the term 'vulnerability' has been used as a tool to remark that uncertainty and risk do matter. In this paper, we define 'vulnerability to poverty' as the ma...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Calvo, C, Dercon, S
Format: Working paper
Sprache:English
Veröffentlicht: 2007
Schlagworte:
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:Standard poverty analysis makes statements about deprivation after the veil of uncertainty has been lifted. Nonetheless, the term 'vulnerability' has been used as a tool to remark that uncertainty and risk do matter. In this paper, we define 'vulnerability to poverty' as the magnitude of the threat of poverty, measured ex- ante, before uncertainty is resolved. We describe the desirable properties of a vulnerability measure as a set of axioms, and present a family of measures satisfying our desiderata at the individual level. We also propose a family of measures of aggregate vulnerability, a concept which has remained largely unexplored thus far.