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.

天气指数保险 (WII) 作为一种低成本商品的诞生，有可能改变发展中国家超过 10 亿尚未投保的低收入人群应对风险的方式。 该项目将调查这种新型保险的购买者可能获得的结果，包括其支持者所表述的结果——减少脆弱性和生计保护——以及未表述的结果，例如增加风险承担。 鉴于对 WII 的研究还处于早期阶段，很少有深入、长期的案例研究，该项目不仅能让研究人员塑造社会科学家理解 WII 的方式，而且还能影响此类保险的运作方式。设计和部署。该项目加剧了关于保险在全球资本主义中的作用的争论。虽然这在大规模的城市或企业中很难解决，但该项目对个人的关注使得可以分析新引入的金融化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）非营利组织和营利组织创建 WII 的动机和想法是什么？ 2) WII 对低收入个人的生计选择、风险分担机制和脆弱性有何影响？ 鉴于发展中国家 WII 入学人数将大幅增加，研究设计将重点关注特定地点的一种 WII 产品——圣卢西亚的生计保护政策——但研究结论将适用于其他地区正在采用新的金融产品来管理气候变化影响的国家。该项目将连接关于金融和脆弱性的两篇重要文献：在有关 WII 的经济学文献中，几乎没有对所有投保人将空间视为统一的方式进行批判性的讨论。 相比之下，关于个体脆弱性如何变化的文献并没有深入探讨金融作为一种适应能力的形式。 为了回答研究问题，调查人员将采访来自四个生计群体的个人，包括 WII 的购买者和非购买者。与参与者的访谈将进行两次，以便可以评估因采用 WII 而随时间发生的变化。研究人员还将采访对 WII 的设计或销售做出贡献的金融专家，以了解 WII 的创建背后的动机。 研究结果将与研究将在圣卢西亚进行的生计团体分享，他们将有兴趣了解 WII 对其成员脆弱性的复杂影响，并与政府部门分享，政府部门需要了解如何WII 的采用与国家管理的现有风险管理策略相互作用。