Risk Sharing Opportunities and Macroeconomic Factors in Latin American and Caribbean Countries : A Consumption Insurance Assessment
This paper evaluates the degree of consumption insurance enjoyed by Latin American and Caribbean countries, with respect to various reference areas, by estimating a parameter expressing the sensitivity of a country's consumption growth to a me...
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Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2012
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Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2008/01/8966564/risk-sharing-opportunities-macroeconomic-factors-latin-american-caribbean-countries-consumption-insurance-assessment http://hdl.handle.net/10986/6473 |
Summary: | This paper evaluates the degree of
consumption insurance enjoyed by Latin American and
Caribbean countries, with respect to various reference
areas, by estimating a parameter expressing the sensitivity
of a country's consumption growth to a measure of
idiosyncratic shocks to income. The paper surveys common
econometric implementations of "consumption insurance
tests." The author proposes some econometric procedures
in order to detect the actual presence of international risk
sharing, as well as to assess the relative impact of
idiosyncratic versus aggregate shocks. The evidence suggests
that Latin American and Caribbean economies have been hit by
non-diversifiable income shocks, that idiosyncratic risk is
relatively more important than aggregate risk, and that some
countries in the region appear to enjoy a certain amount of
international risk diversification. The paper also
identifies some macroeconomic factors that may be
responsible for a higher or lower degree of risk pooling
(such as international openness, financial depth, and credit
availability). The findings show that the financial
development of an economy is a crucial factor in determining
the amount of risk sharing opportunities, as well as public
expenditure. The preliminary results also suggest that trade
openness and shocks to terms of trade play an important role
in determining the degree of insurability of such risks. |
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