IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hit/primdp/1.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Targeting the Vulnerable and the Choice of Vulnerability Measures: Review and Application to Pakistan

Author

Listed:
  • Kurosaki, Takashi
  • 黒崎, 卓

Abstract

In this paper, the concept of vulnerability of the poor’s welfare and its practical measures are scrutinized in order to derive implications for targeting poverty reduction policies toward vulnerable households. As illustration, various measures of vulnerability proposed in the literature are applied to a panel dataset collected in rural Pakistan. The empirical results show that different vulnerability rankings can be obtained depending on the choice of the measure. By utilizing these measures, we can identify who and which region is more vulnerable to a particular type of risk. This kind of information is useful in targeting poverty reduction policies. Since the nature of vulnerability is diverse, it is advisable to use the whole vector of various vulnerability measures.

Suggested Citation

  • Kurosaki, Takashi & 黒崎, 卓, 2010. "Targeting the Vulnerable and the Choice of Vulnerability Measures: Review and Application to Pakistan," PRIMCED Discussion Paper Series 1, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    • Handle: RePEc:hit:primdp:1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hermes-ir.lib.hit-u.ac.jp/hermes/ir/re/18731/No1-dp_10_01.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cesar Calvo & Stefan Dercon, 2005. "Measuring Individual Vulnerability," Economics Series Working Papers 229, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    2. Skoufias, Emmanuel & Quisumbing, Agnes R., 2004. "Consumption insurance and vulnerability to poverty : a synthesis of the evidence from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Mali, Mexico and Russia," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 29141, The World Bank.
    3. Marcel Fafchamps, 2003. "Rural Poverty, Risk and Development," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 3127.
    4. Morduch, Jonathan, 1994. "Poverty and Vulnerability," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(2), pages 221-225, May.
    5. Amin, Sajeda & Rai, Ashok S. & Topa, Giorgio, 2003. "Does microcredit reach the poor and vulnerable? Evidence from northern Bangladesh," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 59-82, February.
    6. Luc J. Christiaensen & Kalanidhi Subbarao, 2005. "Towards an Understanding of Household Vulnerability in Rural Kenya," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 14(4), pages 520-558, December.
    7. Sen, Binayak, 2003. "Drivers of Escape and Descent: Changing Household Fortunes in Rural Bangladesh," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 513-534, March.
    8. Hanan G. Jacoby & Emmanuel Skoufias, 1997. "Risk, Financial Markets, and Human Capital in a Developing Country," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 64(3), pages 311-335.
    9. Jalan, Jyotsna & Ravallion, Martin, 1999. "Are the poor less well insured? Evidence on vulnerability to income risk in rural China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1), pages 61-81, February.
    10. Sawada, Yasuyuki & Lokshin, Michael, 2009. "Obstacles to school progression in rural Pakistan: An analysis of gender and sibling rivalry using field survey data," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(2), pages 335-347, March.
    11. Kurosaki, Takashi & Fafchamps, Marcel, 2002. "Insurance market efficiency and crop choices in Pakistan," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 419-453, April.
    12. Hoddinott, John & Quisumbing, Agnes, 2003. "Methods for microeconometric risk and vulnerability assessments," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 29138, The World Bank.
    13. Townsend, Robert M, 1994. "Risk and Insurance in Village India," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 62(3), pages 539-591, May.
    14. Christopher Udry, 1994. "Risk and Insurance in a Rural Credit Market: An Empirical Investigation in Northern Nigeria," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 61(3), pages 495-526.
    15. Lanjouw, Peter & Ravallion, Martin, 1995. "Poverty and Household Size," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 105(433), pages 1415-1434, November.
    16. McCulloch, Neil & Calandrino, Michele, 2003. "Vulnerability and Chronic Poverty in Rural Sichuan," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 611-628, March.
    17. Neil McCulloch & Bob Baulch, 2000. "Simulating the impact of policy upon chronic and transitory poverty in rural Pakistan," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(6), pages 100-130.
    18. Ravallion, Martin, 1988. "Expected Poverty under Risk-Induced Welfare Variability," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 98(393), pages 1171-1182, December.
    19. Carter, Michael R. & May, Julian, 2001. "One Kind of Freedom: Poverty Dynamics in Post-apartheid South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(12), pages 1987-2006, December.
    20. Ethan Ligon & Laura Schechter, 2003. "Measuring Vulnerability," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 113(486), pages 95-102, March.
    21. Martin Ravallion & Shubham Chaudhuri, 1997. "Risk and Insurance in Village India: Comment," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(1), pages 171-184, January.
    22. Pritchett, Lant & Suryahadi, Asep & Sumarto, Sudarno, 2000. "Quantifying vulnerability to poverty - a proposed measure, applied to Indonesia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2437, The World Bank.
    23. Zimmerman, Frederick J. & Carter, Michael R., 2003. "Asset smoothing, consumption smoothing and the reproduction of inequality under risk and subsistence constraints," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 233-260, August.
    24. Glewwe, Paul & Hall, Gillette, 1998. "Are some groups more vulnerable to macroeconomic shocks than others? Hypothesis tests based on panel data from Peru," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 181-206, June.
    25. Stefan Dercon & Pramila Krishnan, 2000. "Vulnerability, seasonality and poverty in Ethiopia," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(6), pages 25-53.
    26. Jalan, Jyotsna & Ravallion, Martin, 1998. "Transient Poverty in Postreform Rural China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 338-357, June.
    27. Basu, K. & Pattanaik, P. K. & Suzumura, K. (ed.), 1995. "Choice, Welfare, and Development: A Festschrift for Amartya K. Sen," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198287896.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kurosaki, Takashi & Khan, Humayun & Shah, Mir Kalan & Tahir, Muhammad, 2011. "Natural Disasters, Relief Aid, and Household Vulnerability in Pakistan: Evidence from a Pilot Survey in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa," PRIMCED Discussion Paper Series 12, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    2. Azeem, Muhammad Masood & Mugera, Amin W. & Schilizzi, Steven, 2016. "Living on the edge: Household vulnerability to food-insecurity in the Punjab, Pakistan," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 1-13.
    3. Rashida Haq, 2015. "Quantifying Vulnerability to Poverty in a Developing Economy," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 54(4), pages 915-929.
    4. Azeem, Muhammad Masood & Mugera, Amin W. & Schilizzi, Steven, 2016. "Poverty and vulnerability in the Punjab, Pakistan: A multilevel analysis," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 57-72.
    5. Hardeweg, Bernd & Wagener, Andreas & Waibel, Hermann, 2013. "A distributional approach to comparing vulnerability, applied to rural provinces in Thailand and Vietnam," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 53-65.
    6. Rashida Haq, 2012. "Shocks as a Source of Vulnerability: An Empirical Investigation from Pakistan," Poverty and Social Dynamics Paper Series 2012:06, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics.
    7. Rashida Haq, 2015. "Shocks as a Source of Vulnerability: An Empirical Investigation from Pakistan," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 54(3), pages 245-272.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mauricio Gallardo, 2018. "Identifying Vulnerability To Poverty: A Critical Survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(4), pages 1074-1105, September.
    2. Emiliano Magrini & Pierluigi Montalbano, 2012. "Trade openness and vulnerability to poverty: Vietnam in the long-run (1992-2008)," Working Paper Series 3512, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    3. Tomoki Fujii, 2016. "Concepts and measurement of vulnerability to poverty and other issues: a review of literature," Chapters, in: Jacques Silber & Guanghua Wan (ed.), The Asian ‘Poverty Miracle’, chapter 3, pages 53-83, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Günther, Isabel & Harttgen, Kenneth, 2009. "Estimating Households Vulnerability to Idiosyncratic and Covariate Shocks: A Novel Method Applied in Madagascar," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(7), pages 1222-1234, July.
    5. Anh Thu Quang Pham & Pundarik Mukhopadhaya & Ha Vu, 2021. "Estimating poverty and vulnerability to monetary and non-monetary poverty: the case of Vietnam," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 61(6), pages 3125-3177, December.
    6. Montalbano, Pierluigi, 2011. "Trade Openness and Developing Countries' Vulnerability: Concepts, Misconceptions, and Directions for Research," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(9), pages 1489-1502, September.
    7. Gaurav, Sarthak, 2015. "Are Rainfed Agricultural Households Insured? Evidence from Five Villages in Vidarbha, India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 719-736.
    8. Kenneth Harttgen & Isabel Günther, 2007. "Estimating Vulnerability to Covariate and Idiosyncratic Shocks," Ibero America Institute for Econ. Research (IAI) Discussion Papers 154, Ibero-America Institute for Economic Research.
    9. Klasen, Stephan & Lechtenfeld, Tobias & Povel, Felix, 2015. "A Feminization of Vulnerability? Female Headship, Poverty, and Vulnerability in Thailand and Vietnam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 36-53.
    10. Kurosaki, Takashi, 2011. "Vulnerability of Household Consumption to Village-level Aggregate Shocks in a Developing Country," PRIMCED Discussion Paper Series 8, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    11. Vo, Thang T., 2018. "Household vulnerability as expected poverty in Vietnam," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 10, pages 1-14.
    12. Ligon, Ethan A., 2010. "Measuring Risk by Looking at Changes in Inequality: vulnerability in Ecuador," Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley, Working Paper Series qt8vj75725, Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley.
    13. Azeem, Muhammad Masood & Mugera, Amin W. & Schilizzi, Steven, 2016. "Poverty and vulnerability in the Punjab, Pakistan: A multilevel analysis," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 57-72.
    14. Stefan Dercon, 2002. "Income Risk, Coping Strategies, and Safety Nets," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 17(2), pages 141-166, September.
    15. Ethan Ligon & Laura Schechter, 2002. "Measuring Vulnerability: The Director's Cut," WIDER Working Paper Series DP2002-86, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    16. Skoufias, Emmanuel & Quisumbing, Agnes R., 2004. "Consumption insurance and vulnerability to poverty : a synthesis of the evidence from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Mali, Mexico and Russia," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 29141, The World Bank.
    17. Raghav Gaiha & Katsushi Imai, 2008. "Measuring Vulnerability and Poverty: Estimates for Rural India," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2008-40, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    18. Antonio Acconcia & Maria Carannante & Michelangelo Misuraca & Germana Scepi, 2020. "Measuring Vulnerability to Poverty with Latent Transition Analysis," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 151(1), pages 1-31, August.
    19. Mousumi Das, 2021. "Vulnerability to Food Insecurity: A Decomposition Exercise for Rural India using the Expected Utility Approach," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 156(1), pages 167-199, July.
    20. Ethan Ligon & Laura Schechter, 2003. "Measuring Vulnerability," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 113(486), pages 95-102, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    vulnerability; poverty; risk; consumption smoothing; Pakistan;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hit:primdp:1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Digital Resources Section, Hitotsubashi University Library (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iehitjp.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.