000 01553cam a2200157 4500500
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041 _afre
042 _adc
100 1 0 _aDercon, Stefan
_eauthor
245 0 0 _aVulnerability: A Micro Perspective
260 _c2007.
500 _a96
520 _aHigh downside risk to income and livelihoods is part of life in developing countries. Climatic risks, economic fluctuations, and a large number of shocks specific to individuals leave these households vulnerable to severe hardship. The paper explores the links between risk, vulnerability, and poverty, adopting a micro-level approach. Risk does not just result in variability in living standards. Increasing evidence shows that the lack of means to cope with risk and vulnerability is in itself a cause of persistent poverty and poverty traps. Risk results in strategies that avoid taking advantage of profitable but risky opportunities. Shocks destroy human, physical, and social capital, limiting opportunities further. The result is that risk is an important constraint on broad-based growth in living standards in many developing countries. It is a relatively ignored facet in the drafting of anti-poverty policies and efforts to attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The paper discusses conceptual issues, the evidence, and the implications for policy.
786 0 _nRevue d’économie du développement | 14 | 4 | 2007-01-30 | p. 79-118 | 1245-4060
856 4 1 _uhttps://shs.cairn.info/journal-revue-d-economie-du-developpement-2006-4-page-79?lang=en
999 _c158627
_d158627