Title

Consumption Smoothing, Risk Sharing and Household Vulnerability in Rural Mexico

Abstract

This study empirically analyzes risk-sharing functioning in rural Mexico. It also aims to examine the vulnerability of rural households and whether the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program will reduce the vulnerability within the risk-sharing framework. I adopt the two most recent Mexican rural household panel data for 2003 and 2007—although rich in information, the data have not been fully utilized given the lack of pure control groups. Drawing on Townsend's (1994) risk sharing model, the empirical results reject the hypothesis of full risk sharing but confirm that risk-sharing functions serve better in securing basic needs such as food. In addition, the risk-sharing function, reinforced by longer exposures to the CCT program, serves to mitigate the liquidity constraints or vulnerability of poor households.

Keywords

Risk sharing, Household vulnerability, CCT

JEL Classification

O12, D12, O54

Inquiries

Naoko UCHIYAMA
Research Fellow of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS),
Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration
Kobe University
Rokkodai-cho, Nada-ku, Kobe
657-8501 Japan
Phone: +81-78-803-7036
FAX: +81-78-803-7059