Measuring Vulnerability: Who Suffered in the 1995 Mexican Crisis?

The paper identifies the demographic groups that suffered the largest income falls during the 1995 crisis in Mexico and which groups recovered most quickly. It uses quantile analysis to identify those suffering “catastrophic” falls in income and employs distributional weights to identify those most “vulnerable.” The incidence and overall impact of common coping strategies-putting additional family members in the workforceis also examined. ∗ We thank, Chico Ferreira, Gillete Hall and Norman Hicks for careful reading of and insightful comments. We are also grateful to the Mexican National Institute of Statistics, Geography, and Information (INEGI) for the use of the data. INEGI is in no way responsible for any incorrect manipulation of the data or erroneous conclusions drawn from it.