Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Effect of Novel Weather Insurance on Livelihood Practices

博士论文研究：新型天气保险对生计实践的影响

• 批准号: 1434089
• 负责人: James McCarthy
• 金额: $ 1.6万
• 依托单位: Clark University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-09-01 至 2016-02-29
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1434089&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Effect; Novel

The creation of weather index insurance (WII) as a low-cost commodity has the potential to change the way that over a billion, hitherto uninsured, low-income individuals in the developing world engage with risk. This project will investigate the possible outcomes for the purchasers of this novel insurance, both those that are stated by its proponents -- vulnerability reduction and livelihood protection -- and those unstated, such as increased risk-taking. Given that research on WII is in its early stages, with few in-depth, long-term case studies, this project will allow the researchers to not only shape the way that social scientists understand WII, but also impact the way that such insurance is designed and deployed. This project adds to the debate on the role of insurance within global capitalism. While this is difficult to address on the large scale of cities or corporations, this project's focus on individuals allows the intents and outcomes of newly introduced financialized risk management to be analyzed. The researchers will answer two broad questions: 1) What are the motivations and ideas that have informed both non-profit and for-profit groups in creating WII? 2) What are the impacts of WII on the livelihood choices, risk-sharing mechanisms, and vulnerabilities of low-income individuals? Given the large expansion in WII enrolment that will take place across the developing world, the research design will focus on one WII product in a specific place -- the Livelihood Protection Policy in St. Lucia -- but the research conclusions will be applicable to other countries that are adopting new financial products to manage climate change effects. This project will bridge two key literatures on finance and vulnerability: in the economics literature on WII there is little critical engagement with the way that space is treated as uniform for all policyholders. In contrast, the literature on how vulnerabilities vary across individuals has not engaged deeply with finance as a form of adaptive capacity. In order to answer the research questions, the investigators will conduct interviews with individuals from four livelihood groups including both purchasers and non-purchasers of WII. Interviews with the participants will occur twice, so that change over time due to WII adoption may be assessed. The researchers will also interview financial experts who have contributed to the design or sale of WII in order to understand the motivations behind WII's creation. The findings will be shared with livelihoods groups in St. Lucia, where the research will take place, who will be interested in understanding the complex effects of WII on their members' vulnerability, and shared with government ministries, which will need to understand how the adoption of WII interacts with existing risk management strategies administered by the state.

将天气指数保险（WII）作为低成本商品的创造有可能改变发展中国家迄今未投保的低收入个人的方式。 该项目将调查这种新型保险购买者的可能结果，包括其支持者所说的那些（脆弱性减少和生计保护）以及未陈述的人，例如增加冒险。 鉴于Wii的研究处于早期阶段，很少有长期的长期案例研究，因此该项目将使研究人员不仅可以塑造社会科学家了解WII的方式，而且还影响了这种保险的设计和部署方式。该项目增加了有关保险在全球资本主义中的作用的辩论。尽管这很难在大规模的城市或公司中解决，但该项目对个人的关注允许分析新引入的财务风险管理的意图和结果。 研究人员将回答两个广泛的问题：1）在创建WII时既了解非营利组织和营利性团体的动机和想法是什么？ 2）Wii对低收入个人的生计选择，风险分享机制和脆弱性有何影响？ 鉴于Wii入学率的大幅扩展将在整个发展中国家进行，研究设计将集中在特定地方的一种Wii产品（圣卢西亚的生计保护政策）上，但研究结论将适用于其他正在采用新金融产品来管理气候变化影响的新金融产品。该项目将桥接有关金融和脆弱性的两种关键文献：在有关Wii的经济学文献中，与所有保单持有人的空间视为统一的方式几乎没有批判性的互动。 相比之下，有关个人脆弱性如何变化的文献并未与财务深深地成为一种适应能力的形式。 为了回答研究问题，调查人员将对来自Wii的购买者和非购买者在内的四个生计团体的个人进行访谈。与参与者的访谈将进行两次，因此可以评估由于采用Wii而随着时间的变化。研究人员还将采访为Wii设计或销售做出贡献的财务专家，以了解Wii创建背后的动机。 这些发现将与圣卢西亚的生计群体共享，该研究将进行研究，他们有兴趣了解Wii对其成员脆弱性的复杂影响，并与政府部门共享，这将需要了解WII的采用如何与国家管理的现有风险管理策略相互作用。