Authors
Travis J Lybbert, Christopher B Barrett, Solomon Desta, D Layne Coppock
Publication date
2004/9/28
Journal
The Economic Journal
Volume
114
Issue
498
Pages
750-777
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Description
We use herd history data collected among pastoralists in southern Ethiopia to study stochastic wealth dynamics among a poor population. Although covariate rainfall shocks plainly matter, household‐specific factors, including own herd size, account for most observed variability in wealth dynamics. We find no support for the tragedy of the commons hypothesis. Past studies may have conflated costly self‐insurance with stocking rate externalities. Biophysical shocks move households between multiple dynamic wealth equilibria – the lowest suggesting a poverty trap – according to nonconvex path dynamics. These findings have broad implications for development and relief strategies among a poor population vulnerable to climatic shocks.
Total citations
Scholar articles
TJ Lybbert, CB Barrett, S Desta, D Layne Coppock - The Economic Journal, 2004
TJ Lybbert, CB Barrett, S Desta, DL Coppock - unpublished Cornell University manuscript, 2001
T Lybbert, C Barrett, S Desta, DL Coppock - USAID, Utah State University, International Livestock …, 2001
TJ Lybbert, CB Barrett, S Desta, DL Coppock - GL-CRSP Working Paper, 2000
DL Coppock - The Economic Journal, 2004