Modelling Vulnerability in the UK

In this paper we examine the concept of "vulnerability" (Townsend 1994) within thecontext of income mobility of the poor. We test for the dynamics of vulnerablehouseholds in the UK using Waves 1 - 12 of the British Household Panel Survey andfind that, of three different types of risks that we test for, household-specific shocksand economy-wide aggregate shocks have the greatest impact on consumption, incomparison to shocks to the income stream. Quantile-specific estimates revealspecific quantiles, particularly those around the poverty line which are mostsusceptible to be vulnerable to shocks to the income stream. The estimates are foundto be robust to household composition and year-specific shocks.