Insurance, Credit and Safety Nets for the Poor in a World of Risk

Daniel Clarke and Stefan Dercon

Working Papers from United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs

Abstract: This paper asks how insurance can be more effectively delivered to the poor, and what its role should be relative to other microfinance programmes, safety nets and informal insurance systems. We focus on the various interactions, including how insurance may crowd out credit and informal insurance, and implications for the design of insurance schemes. We argue that well-designed insurance schemes, building on existing informal systems, and focusing on catastrophic and serious covariate risks, could offer protection against risk and contribute to poverty reduction beyond the combined impact of microcredit programmes, safety nets and existing informal mutual support systems.

Keywords: Risks; Microcredit; Microinsurance; Safety nets (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G21 G22 O16 O17 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 18 pages
Date: 2009-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-ias and nep-mfd
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (31)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:une:wpaper:81

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