Influences of migrant work income on the poverty vulnerability disaster threatened area: A case study of the Three Gorges Reservoir area, China

The poverty vulnerability of peasant households has been a common focus for scholars. However, research on vulnerability, its determinants, and policy implications is still rather limited in developing countries. Based on statistics on peasant households threatened by geological disasters at the Three Gorges Reservoir area, this paper studied external risk impacts on peasant households' poverty vulnerability with relation to migrant work income. The results show that: 1) Agricultural income loss does not significantly impact peasant household poverty vulnerability. However, geological disaster impacts and housing construction or purchase exert significantly positive influences, acting as the dominant influences on peasant household poverty vulnerability. 2) Savings and migrant work income can significantly reduce the impact of external risks on peasant household poverty vulnerability. To be specific, future consumption for peasants with savings is 47.1% (model 3) and 32.5% (model 5) lower than that for peasants without savings, and with every 1% increase in the proportion of migrant work income, future consumption variance for peasant households falls 25.2% (model 3) and 24.9% (model 5) on average. In addition, social networks have no significant remission effects to the poverty vulnerabilities caused by external risks.