Social protection as social risk management : conceptual underpinnings for the social protection sector strategy paper

This report serves as a conceptual background piece for the development of the Social Strategy Paper (SSP). To develop the conceptual underpinnings, the objectives and instruments of strategy papers (SP) are viewed under the rubric of Social Risk Management (SRM). SRM consists of public measures intended to assist individuals, households, and communities in managing income risks in order to reduce vulnerability, improve consumption smoothing, and enhance equity while contributing to economic development in a participatory manner. To support the approach and its logic, the structure of this note is as follows: Chapter 2 sets the stage and presents global trends, definitions, and outlooks. Chapter 3 presents key issues of SRM, from the reasons for World Bank concern to a typology of strategies and instruments, and ends with the role of the main actors. Chapter 4 focuses on the boundaries of SP/SRM and on three key policy issues to balance equity, efficiency, and political sustainability. Chapter 5 ends with preliminary list of ways in which the new framework may affect our view of SP and the development of better instruments.Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Economics&Finance,Banks&Banking Reform,Social Risk Management,Rural Poverty Reduction

Social risk management : a new conceptual framework for social protection and beyond

This paper proposes a new definition, and conceptual framework for social protection, grounded in social risk management. The concept repositions the traditional areas of social protection (labor market intervention, social insurance, and social safety nets) in a framework that includes three strategies to deal with risk (prevention, mitigation, and coping), three levels of formality of risk management (informal, market-based, public), and, many actors (individuals, households, communities, non-governmental organizations, governments at various levels, and international organizations) against the background of asymmetric information, and different types of risk. This expanded view of social protection emphasizes the double role of risk management instruments - protecting basic livelihood, as well aspromoting risk taking. It focuses specifically on the poor, since they are the most vulnerable to risk, and typically lack appropriate risk management instruments, which constrains them from engaging in riskier, but also higher return activities, and hence gradually moving out of chronic poverty.Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Economics&Finance,Insurance&Risk Mitigation,Social Risk Management,Banks&Banking Reform

Extensions of Positive Definite Functions: Applications and Their Harmonic Analysis

We study two classes of extension problems, and their interconnections: (i) Extension of positive definite (p.d.) continuous functions defined on subsets in locally compact groups $G$; (ii) In case of Lie groups, representations of the associated Lie algebras $La\left(G\right)$ by unbounded skew-Hermitian operators acting in a reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS) $\mathscr{H}_{F}$. Why extensions? In science, experimentalists frequently gather spectral data in cases when the observed data is limited, for example limited by the precision of instruments; or on account of a variety of other limiting external factors. Given this fact of life, it is both an art and a science to still produce solid conclusions from restricted or limited data. In a general sense, our monograph deals with the mathematics of extending some such given partial data-sets obtained from experiments. More specifically, we are concerned with the problems of extending available partial information, obtained, for example, from sampling. In our case, the limited information is a restriction, and the extension in turn is the full positive definite function (in a dual variable); so an extension if available will be an everywhere defined generating function for the exact probability distribution which reflects the data; if it were fully available. Such extensions of local information (in the form of positive definite functions) will in turn furnish us with spectral information. In this form, the problem becomes an operator extension problem, referring to operators in a suitable reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces (RKHS). In our presentation we have stressed hands-on-examples. Extensions are almost never unique, and so we deal with both the question of existence, and if there are extensions, how they relate back to the initial completion problem.Comment: 235 pages, 42 figures, 7 tables. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1401.478

Harmonic analysis of fractal measures induced by representations of a certain C∗^*-algebra

We describe a class of measurable subsets $\Omega$ in \br^d such that $L^2(\Omega)$ has an orthogonal basis of frequencies $e_\lambda(x)=e^{i2\pi\lambda\cdot x}(x\in\Omega)$ indexed by \lambda\in\Lambda\subset\br^d. We show that such spectral pairs $(\Omega ,\Lambda)$ have a self-similarity which may be used to generate associated fractal measures $\mu$ with Cantor set support. The Hilbert space $L^2(\mu)$ does not have a total set of orthogonal frequencies, but a harmonic analysis of $\mu$ may be built instead from a natural representation of the Cuntz C$^*$- algebra which is constructed from a pair of lattices supporting the given spectral pair $(\Omega ,\Lambda)$. We show conversely that such a pair may be reconstructed from a certain Cuntz-representation given to act on $L^2(\mu)$.Comment: 7 page

Helping the poor manage risk better : the role of social funds

Recent trends in trade, technology, and politics have created new opportunities for global welfare improvement, but have also increased risks. This challenge requires rethinking social protection, and its instruments, particularly social funds. This paper reviews social funds, and suggests future directions by using a"social risk management"framework, to examine how social funds can help the poor manage risk better. Risk management covers risk reduction, risk mitigation, and risk coping. Analyzing social funds within the social risk management framework, suggests that: they should be assessed as one of many components in countries'social risk management strategies; they should move from coping and mitigation, to risk reduction; they should focus more on the medium term impact of projects; their targeting should focus on vulnerability, and vulnerable groups; their"investment menus"should be expanded to include more risk reduction projects; and, more emphasis should be given to participation, and capacity building.Banks&Banking Reform,Social Risk Management,Environmental Economics&Policies,Rural Poverty Reduction,Safety Nets and Transfers