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Vulnerability to Poverty Cesar Calvo, University of Oxford & Universidad de Piura Stefan Dercon, CSAE, University of Oxford WPS/2007-03 Download the Paper (PDF format) - March 1, 2007 Tell a colleague about it. Printing Tips: Select 'print as image' in the Acrobat print dialog if you have trouble printing. ABSTRACT: Standard poverty analysis makes statements about deprivation after the veil of uncertainty has been lifted. Nonetheless, the term 'vulnerability' has been used as a tool to remark that uncertainty and risk do matter. In this paper, we define 'vulnerability to poverty' as the magnitude of the threat of poverty, measured ex- ante, before uncertainty is resolved. We describe the desirable properties of a vulnerability measure as a set of axioms, and present a family of measures satisfying our desiderata at the individual level. We also propose a family of measures of aggregate vulnerability, a concept which has remained largely unexplored thus far. SUGGESTED CITATION: Cesar Calvo and Stefan Dercon, "Vulnerability to Poverty " (March 1, 2007). The Centre for the Study of African Economies Working Paper Series. Working Paper 262. http://www.bepress.com/csae/paper262