Weathering Poverty by Clare Balboni

Join us for the latest Joint Applied and Behavioural, Experimental, and Development Economics Seminar Series event, Summer Term 2025.

Join Clare Balboni, from the Department of Economics, London School of Economics and Political Science, will present this week's seminar on Weathering Poverty.

Abstract

The overlapping incidence of poverty and climate damages globally raises the question of whether and how poverty makes people more vulnerable to worsening weather shocks. To study this question, we overlay high-resolution, satellite-based drought and flood measures on household survey panel data from the randomized evaluation of a flagship anti-poverty graduation program in Bangladesh. The comparison of households that were equally poor before a randomly chosen group of them were given the graduation program reveals that the poorest bear the brunt of negative consumption impacts from unpredictable weather shocks. Those lifted out of poverty by the program do not reduce consumption and this protection is sustainable because it is achieved by diversifying labor activities rather than divesting assets. Programs that diversify income generating activities are thus a promising means of enhancing the climate resilience of the extreme poor and avoiding adding to their numbers in the future.

It will be held in the Economics Common Room at 2.00pm on Tuesday 22 May. This event is open to all levels of study and is also open to the public. To register your place and gain access to the webinar, please contact the seminar organisers.

This event is part of the Applied Economics Research Seminar Series.