Throughout their lifetime, men and women are subject to a wide variety of risks, such as illness, accident, death, or less directly, unemployment, crop failure, loss of property, disability, business failre and skill obsolescence. This volume investigates the relationships between rural poverty, risk, and development. Building upon the author's work in the area, it summarizes the contributions of recent theoretical and empirical work to our understanding of how risk affects rural poverty levels in developing countries. In particular the book examines what we do and do ot know about risk coping strategies among modern poor rural societies. Ways in which these strategies may be re-examined and improved by governments and international organizations are proposed. INDICE Risk and poverty - life and risk, risk in poor rural economics The risk coping strategies of the rural poor - reducing exposure to Shocks Risk sharing The limits to risk coping - the limits to self-protection, sharing and Power, risk sharing and credit, information asymmetries, risk saring Networks, the breakdown of the solidarity system Risk and inequality - a stylized economy, no marketable assets, Accumulation with no sharing, accumulation and risk sharing, imperfect Commitment, risk and poverty trap Risk and development - nutrition and human capital, risk and Technological innovation, commercial crops vs. subsistence farming, Precautionary saving and investment constraints, risk sharing and risk taking Conclusion - what we have learned, what we do not know, what local Governments can do, what the international community can do.