Vulnerability to Poverty

'By bringing together conceptual clarity, new and original data, and careful analysis of how households both deal with risk ex ante, and cope with shocks ex post, this volume makes an important contribution to the economic analysis of vulnerability to poverty. The book brings welcome coherence and comprehensiveness to a field which is often characterized by partial and fragmented approaches. It should be read not only by those who focus on Thailand and Vietnam, but by anyone interested in how risk and volatility interact with poverty, how households respond, and how policy-makers can help them to do so more effectively.' Francisco H. G. Ferreira, Lead Economist, Development Research Group, World Bank

'The method of directly tackling the measurement of expectations of risks and shocks, as done in this book, opens up some extremely exciting avenues for research that may allow for a better understanding of the connection between risk and subjective welfare.' Ethan Ligon, University of Berkeley, USA

'Despite some success in the battle against poverty across the world, the risk of falling into poverty remains high for billions of people, facing shocks that can devastate their lives. This collection of essays is a splendid contribution to poverty analysis, dealing with conceptual, diagnostic and policy issues." Amartya Sen, Harvard University, USA

'Applying vulnerability to poverty concepts to real data remains a serious challenge. This book offers a set of strong papers taking on this challenge, identifying the many empirical problems in vulnerability research and suggests ways to overcome them. ' Stefan Dercon, Professor of Development Economics, Oxford.