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Informal Insurance in the Presence of Poverty Traps: Evidence from Southern Ethiopia

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  • Santos, Paulo
  • Barrett, Christopher B.

Abstract

Fieldwork for this paper was conducted under the Pastoral Risk Management (PARIMA) project of the Global Livestock Collaborative Research Support Program (GL CRSP), funded by the Office of Agriculture and Food Security, Global Bureau, USAID, under grant number DAN-1328-G-00-0046-00, and analysis was underwritten by the USAID SAGA cooperative agreement, grant number HFM-A-00-01-00132-00. Financial support was also provided by the Social Science Research Council's Program in Applied Economics on Risk and Development (through a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation), The Pew Charitable Trusts (through the Christian Scholars Program of the University of Notre Dame), the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (Portugal), and the Graduate School of Cornell University. Thanks are due to ILRI - Ethiopia for their hospitality and support and to Action for Development (Yabello) for logistical support. We thank Getachew Gebru and our field assistants, Ahmed Ibrahim and Mohammed Ibrahim, for their invaluable assistance in data collection. This is a much revised version of an earlier paper that circulated under the title: "Safety nets or social insurance in the presence of poverty traps? Evidence from southern Ethiopia". We thank Michael Carter, Stefan Dercon, Andrew Foster, Vivian Hoffman, Dhushyanth Raju, Steve Younger and participants at various conferences and seminars for comments that greatly improved this paper. The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not represent any official agency. Any remaining errors are our own.

Suggested Citation

  • Santos, Paulo & Barrett, Christopher B., 2006. "Informal Insurance in the Presence of Poverty Traps: Evidence from Southern Ethiopia," 2006 Annual Meeting, August 12-18, 2006, Queensland, Australia 25487, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:iaae06:25487
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.25487
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    3. Giesbert, Lena & Schindler, Kati, 2012. "Assets, Shocks, and Poverty Traps in Rural Mozambique," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(8), pages 1594-1609.
    4. Barnett, Barry J. & Barrett, Christopher B. & Skees, Jerry R., 2008. "Poverty Traps and Index-Based Risk Transfer Products," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(10), pages 1766-1785, October.
    5. Bhattamishra, Ruchira & Barrett, Christopher B., 2010. "Community-Based Risk Management Arrangements: A Review," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(7), pages 923-932, July.
    6. Naschold, Felix, 2012. "“The Poor Stay Poor”: Household Asset Poverty Traps in Rural Semi-Arid India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(10), pages 2033-2043.
    7. Orazio Attanasio & Britta Augsburg, 2016. "Subjective Expectations and Income Processes in Rural India," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 83(331), pages 416-442, July.
    8. repec:hal:pseose:halshs-01075648 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Alain de JANVRY & Elisabeth SADOULET & Renos VAKIS, 2008. "Protecting Vulnerable Children from Uninsured Risks: Adapting Conditional Cash Transfer Programs to Provide Broader Safety Nets," Working Papers P04, FERDI.
    10. Lybbert, Travis J. & McPeak, John, 2012. "Risk and intertemporal substitution: Livestock portfolios and off-take among Kenyan pastoralists," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 415-426.
    11. Berloffa, Gabriella & Modena, Francesca, 2013. "Income shocks, coping strategies, and consumption smoothing: An application to Indonesian data," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 158-171.
    12. Baird, Timothy D. & Gray, Clark L., 2014. "Livelihood Diversification and Shifting Social Networks of Exchange: A Social Network Transition?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 14-30.
    13. Jaimovich, Dany, 2011. "Macrostructure and microstructure: Evidence from overlapping village networks in The Gambia," MPRA Paper 38932, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. MARIEKE HUYSENTRUYT & CHRISTOPHER B. BARRETT & JOHN G. McPEAK, 2009. "Understanding Declining Mobility and Inter‐household Transfers among East African Pastoralists," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 76(302), pages 315-336, April.
    15. Barrett, Christopher B., 2006. "Food aid in response to acute food insecurity," ESA Working Papers 289057, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Agricultural Development Economics Division (ESA).
    16. Takahashi, Kazushi, 2016. "Mobile Phone Expansion, Informal Risk Sharing, and Consumption Smoothing: Evidence from Rural Uganda," MPRA Paper 75135, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Haider, Hamza, "undated". "Asset Management & Coping Strategies in Burkina Faso," 2017 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 1, Chicago, Illinois 259956, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    18. Giulia Malevolti, 2022. "Can weather shocks give rise to a poverty trap? Evidence from Nigeria," Working Papers - Economics wp2022_10.rdf, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa.

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