Risk Coping Measures against Different Types of Shocks: Empirical Evidence from Vietnam Household Living Standard Survey

【Key Words】income and sickness shock, risk coping measures, assets, Vietnamese farm household 【JEL codes】 D91, O16 【Abstract】 Income variability and additional medical consumption should be major shocks for farm households in developing countries. This paper investigates risk coping measures against these different types of shocks using Vietnamese Living Standard Measurement Study. Estimating results suggest that productive fixed assets are used for medical shock, while non-productive assets such as consumer goods are disposed for coping with income shock. This can be interpreted by nature of shocks, loan interest rate for coping shocks, and households’ time preference under liquidity constraint. Consumer goods could be accumulated for precautionary motive and heavy debt of sickness may result in loss of productive fixed assets.