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Defining and Measuring Vulnerability: State of the Art and New Proposals

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Vulnerability to Poverty

Abstract

Life in developing countries often is marked by poverty and risk. Prominent studies such as Voices of the Poor: Crying Out for Change (Narayan et al., 2000) acquaint their readers with the daily struggle faced by poor households that try to escape their hardship in the face of recurring illness, natural disasters and other hazards. In the absence of well-functioning credit and insurance markets — a distressing reality in most developing countries -exposure to these adverse events renders households highly vulnerable. This can affect not only households who were poor to start with and who might face utter destitution as a result of adverse shocks, but also non-poor households who can fall back into poverty, and thus also need to be considered in an analysis of vulnerability to poverty.

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Authors
  1. Stephan Klasen
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  2. Felix Povel
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Göttingen, Germany

    Stephan Klasen (Professor of Development Economics and Coordinator of the Courant Research Centre ‘Poverty, Equity, and Growth in Developing and Transition Countries’) (Professor of Development Economics and Coordinator of the Courant Research Centre ‘Poverty, Equity, and Growth in Developing and Transition Countries’)

  2. School of Economics and Management, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany

    Hermann Waibel (professor of Agricultural Economics, Director of the Institute of Development and Agricultural Economics) (professor of Agricultural Economics, Director of the Institute of Development and Agricultural Economics)

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© 2013 Stephan Klasen and Felix Povel

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Klasen, S., Povel, F. (2013). Defining and Measuring Vulnerability: State of the Art and New Proposals. In: Klasen, S., Waibel, H. (eds) Vulnerability to Poverty. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230306622_2

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