Household income strategies and natural disasters: Dynamic livelihoods in rural Nicaragua
Household income strategies and natural disasters: Dynamic livelihoods in rural Nicaragua
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DOI：
10.1016/j.ecolecon.2009.09.006
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发表时间：
2010-01
影响因子：
7
通讯作者：
M. V. D. Berg
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
M. V. D. Berg
本文评估了飓风米奇对尼加拉瓜农村家庭生计策略的影响。飓风或其他自然灾害通过破坏或廉价出售生产性资产，可能促使拥有相对有报酬的生计的人们选择更具防御性的战略，使他们能够生存，但福利水平永远低于以前。利用米奇飓风前后的面板数据，我们发现生计策略可以分为三个福利类别。年度农业和农场就业产生的收入较低，而非农业工资就业和畜牧业产生的收入相对较高。多年生种植、非农业个体经营和全年种植非农业就业居中。高福利策略与高资本水平相关，不同年份参与的人数非常相似，这表明采用低福利策略的家庭陷入贫困。然而，许多家庭在不同福利水平的策略之间积极地移动。这表明没有绝对的贫穷门槛，但也表明能够开始一项相对有利的生计战略并不能保证这项战略能够维持下去。没有证据表明米奇飓风影响了生计战略的转变：米奇受灾地区内外家庭的生计流动性相似。
This paper assesses the impact of hurricane Mitch on livelihood strategies of rural households in Nicaragua. Through destruction or distress sales of productive assets, a hurricane or another natural hazard could induce people with relatively remunerative livelihoods to choose more defensive strategies which allow them to survive, but at a permanently lower welfare level than before. Using panel data from before and after hurricane Mitch, we find that livelihood strategies can be grouped into three welfare categories. Annual farming and farm employment generate low incomes, whereas nonfarm wage employment and livestock farming result in relatively high incomes. Perennial farming, nonfarm self-employment and annual cropping with nonfarm employment take an intermediate position. High welfare strategies were associated with high levels of capital, and the number of people involved was very similar between different years, suggesting that households following low-welfare strategies were trapped in poverty. However, many households moved actively between strategies of different welfare levels. This indicates that there was no absolute poverty threshold, but also that being able to initiate a relatively profitable livelihood strategy was no guarantee that this strategy could be maintained. There is no evidence that hurricane Mitch affected livelihood strategy transitions: livelihood mobility was similar for households inside and outside Mitch-affected areas.