Social Protection beyond the Bottom Billion

Susan Murphy () and Patrick Walsh ()
Additional contact information
Susan Murphy: Trinity College Dublin

No 8376, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Most conceptualisations of the bottom billion assume that "the poor" are a minority group in a state of continuous dependency, identifiable by region and demographic. Using a flow analysis (inflow and outflow) of poverty, rather than a stock analysis, we explain why poverty is more appropriately understood as a dynamic, with the majority of people flowing in and out of poverty for short durations. Distinguishing between structural and transitory poverty gives rise to a focus on the identification of multiple constituencies in the wider population including the permanently poor; sometimes poor; and non-poor. External shocks, including economic and environmental shifts, and risks such as ill-health, can affect any individual, household, or population in a non-predictable way, and can lead to loss of livelihood and a descent into poverty for various durations. At any point in time the bottom billion is made up of a blend of both transitory and structural elements with the former reflecting poverty as a risk for a much wider population than is often assumed. Using this analysis, the total stock of poverty potentially entails up to 5.1 billion people who do not have access to comprehensive social protection systems and are therefore vulnerable to spells in poverty. To protect against shared risks and mutual vulnerabilities, this paper argues that global insurance instruments, regulated through domestic institutions, would provide an efficient solution to transitory poverty. Further, it argues that these instruments could provide a foundation for investment in more equitable and extensive social protection measures that could target the multiple dimensions of structural poverty thereby seeking to ensure that no one is left behind.

Keywords: structural poverty; transitory poverty; social justice; social transfers; social insurance; social security; social protection; Pareto efficiency; equity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J65 J68 O35 O43 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 pages
Date: 2014-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ias
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published - published in: Economic and Social Review, 2014, 45 (2), 261 - 284

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp8376.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Social Protection Beyond the Bottom Billion (2014)
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:iza:izadps:dp8376

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().