Consumption versus asset smoothing: testing the implications of poverty trap theory in Burkina Faso
Consumption versus asset smoothing: testing the implications of poverty trap theory in Burkina Faso
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DOI：
10.1016/j.jdeveco.2012.02.003
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发表时间：
2012-11-01
影响因子：
5
通讯作者：
Lybbert, Travis J.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Carter, Michael R.;Lybbert, Travis J.
尽管贫困、借贷受限的家庭将跨期管理资产以平滑消费的观点有坚实的理论基础，但消费平滑假说并不总是经受住实证检验。本文用贫困陷阱模型重新评估了跨期资产管理问题，并表明我们期望在最优积累行为出现分歧的关键资产水平附近看到资产平滑，而不是消费平滑。然后，我们采用阈值估计技术，使用西非家庭面板数据集凭经验确认消费和资产平滑制度的共存。高于估计阈值的家庭几乎完全使消费免受天气冲击，而低于阈值的家庭则不然。这些结果不仅间接提供了贫困陷阱存在的证据，而且还说明了未投保风险成本的水平和发生率。 (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. 保留所有权利。
Despite solid theoretical foundations for the notion that poor, borrowing-constrained households will inter-temporally manage assets to smooth consumption, the consumption-smoothing hypothesis has not always withstood empirical scrutiny. This paper reassesses the intertemporal asset management problem with a poverty trap model and shows that we would expect to see asset smoothing, not consumption smoothing, in the neighborhood of critical asset levels at which optimal accumulation behavior bifurcates. We then employ threshold estimation techniques to empirically confirm the co-existence of consumption and asset smoothing regimes using a household panel data set from West Africa. Households above the estimated threshold almost completely insulate their consumption from weather shocks, whereas those below the threshold do not. These results not only indirectly provide evidence of the existence of poverty traps but also speak to the level and incidence of the costs of uninsured risk. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.