IV-4.”A Socio-economic Study on Risk-pooling Mechanism in Rural Cambodia”(H22 FY2010)


  • Project Leader : Fukui Seiichi (Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University)
  • Collaborators : Fujita Koichi (Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University)
  • : Yagura Kenjiro (Faculty of Economics, Hannan University)
  • : Miwa Kana (Faculty of Economics, Kushiro Public University of Economics)
  • : Chhair Sokty (Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies, Kobe University)

Outline of Research

In less developed countries, people usually make arrangements for some mechanisms to cope with various unpredicted shocks such as serious illness, injury, crop failure and sudden unemployment and so forth.

This study will analyze the roles of “social networks”, “community based fund raising activities; Sangaha-tine”, and “remittances from family members” in the risk-pooling of poor households who face the above-mentioned shocks in rural Cambodia, using the data collected through household surveys and field experiments.

For this purpose, we plan to conduct a field survey in Kompong Speu province and Takeo province.

Description

The objectives of this study are to investigate the mechanisms through which the rural households who come across unpredicted shocks cope with damages caused by such shocks and how they mitigate the impacts on the household economy through informal risk pooling measures, focusing on “social networks”, “community based fund raising activity; Sangaha-tine”, and “remittances from family members”.

Existing studies have already uncovered that gift exchange and quasi-credit among relatives and friends, a custom of community based mutual help, or remittances from family members played important roles in risk-pooling of rural households. However, how each of these three factors mutually affect the other factors, have never been examined by those studies. In addition, the effect of each factor on risk-pooling has a regional difference.

This study differs from the existing studies in that we take into consideration the mutual interaction of these three factors and their regional characteristics. Therefore, we believe this study can contribute to the progress of study on risk-pooling.

Finally, it is hoped that the findings of this study can be applied to design more efficient poverty reduction programs (eg. micro-insurance program).


A District Hospital in Takev Province

The Provincial Hospital in Takev Province, Cambodia

A Health Insurance Card issued for the poor