Formal and Informal Risk Sharing in LDCs: Theory and Empirical Evidence

Pierre Dubois, Bruno Jullien and Thierry Magnac

No 2184, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: We develop and estimate a model of dynamic interactions in which commitment is limited and contracts are incomplete to explain the patterns of income and consumption growth in village economies of less developed countries. Households can insure each other through both formal contracts and informal agreements, that is, self-enforcing agreements specifying voluntary transfers. This theoretical setting nests the case of complete markets and the case where only informal agreements are available. We derive a system of non-linear equations for income and consumption growth. A key prediction of our model is that both variables are affected by lagged consumption as a consequence of the interplay of formal and informal contracting possibilities. In a semi-parametric setting, we prove identification, derive testable restrictions and estimate the model with the use of data from Pakistan villages. Empirical results are consistent with the economic arguments. Incentive constraints due to self-enforcement bind with positive probability and formal contracts are used to reduce this probability.

Keywords: risk sharing; contracts; incomplete markets; informal transfers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C14 D13 D91 L14 O12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (58)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp2184.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Formal and Informal Risk Sharing in LDCs: Theory and Empirical Evidence (2008)
Working Paper: Formal and Informal Risk Sharing in LDCs: Theory and Empirical Evidence (2008)
Working Paper: Formal and informal risk sharing in LDCs: theory and empirical evidence (2008)
Working Paper: Formal and Informal Risk Sharing in LDCs: Theory and Empirical Evidence (2007)
Working Paper: Formal and Informal Risk Sharing in LDCs: Theory and Empirical Evidence (2007)
Working Paper: Formal and Informal Risk Sharing in LDCs: Theory and Empirical Evidence (2007)
Working Paper: Formal and informal risk sharing in LDCs: theory and empirical evidence (2006)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ces:ceswps:_2184

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Klaus Wohlrabe ().