Income Volatility and Social Protection in Developing Asia
Sipahimalani-Rao, Vandana | November 2006
Abstract
Most developing countries in Asia have introduced market-oriented economic reforms and face increasing exposure to global markets. Households in these countries thus have greater opportunities to raise their standard of living. However, they also face riskier environments and typically have to cope with greater income volatility. This paper undertakes a critical review of the social protection literature to understand the impact of vulnerability to income risk in developing Asian economies, and the role of social protection in managing that risk. The paper highlights the fact that social protection mechanisms are important in helping vulnerable households mitigate as well as reduce risk, to enable them to invest in high-risk but high-return activities. Thus public policy plays an important role in both protecting and empowering vulnerable individuals. Key policy implications are suggested based on the critical review.
Citation
Sipahimalani-Rao, Vandana. 2006. Income Volatility and Social Protection in Developing Asia. © Asian Development Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/11540/1886. License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.ISSN
1655-5252
Keywords
Poverty Analysis
Participatory Poverty Assessment
Poverty Reduction Strategy
Extreme Poverty
Economic development
Growth And Poverty
Income Distribution
Demographic Indicators
Social Justice
Price stabilization
Food prices
Price policy
Social change
Social accounting
Inequality of income
Economic growth
Qualilty of Life
Open price system
Price fixing
Price regulation
Consumer price indexes
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