Index insurance and the moral economy of pastoral risk management in Mongolia

ABSTRACT

Rural livelihoods worldwide are being transformed by the increasing financialization of agricultural production. Microlending and the deeper integration of production cycles in commodity markets are clearly at the vanguard of these transformations, but insurance and similar financial products have become a new frontier. Here, we explore index-based livestock insurance in Mongolia, where even in the face of disaster and worsening climatic conditions, herders have expressed limited interest in, and some outright rejection of, index insurance. Using a decade of ethnographic research, we explore herder perceptions of index insurance, its effects, and the contrast with local moral economies of mutual aid.

KEYWORDS:

• pastoralism; insurance; risk management; neoliberalism
• Mongolia

Acknowledgements

The research discussed in this paper was supported by funding from the National Science Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, the Taft Humanities Research Center, and the University of Cincinnati. The authors also express their appreciation to numerous people who assisted the data collection and supported us in the field as well as to Marissa Smith, Irmelin Joelson, and Sohini Kar, who commented on early drafts. The paper is dedicated to Daniel Murphy’s field assistant D. Chimedtseren, who passed away unexpectedly in 2019 and without whom this research would not have happened.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 In Mongolian, the acronym is MID, and, in English, IBLI.

Additional information

Funding

Financial support for this research was provided by the National Science Foundation (CA-DDRIG SBE-0719863 and BCS-1951195), Wenner Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, Institute for International Education Fulbright Program, Lambda Alpha National Honor Society, the University of Kentucky, the Charles Phelps Taft Research Center, and the University of Cincinnati. Institutional support was provided at various times by the National University of Mongolia, Center for Development Research, the American Center for Mongolian Studies, and UNESCO Institute for the Study of Nomadic Civilizations.

Notes on contributors

Daniel J. Murphy

Daniel J. Murphy is a cultural anthropologist whose research explores the interwoven relationships between humans and their environments, focusing in particular on the cultural, political and economic dimensions of human response to environmental change. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology and the School of Environment and Sustainability at the University of Cincinnati.

Byambabaatar Ichinkhorloo

Byambabaatar Ichinkhorloo is a cultural anthropologist whose research focuses on the socio-cultural impacts of economic development and conservation in Mongolia. He is currently a lecturer in the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at the National University of Mongolia and Science Secretary of the Institute of Mongol Studies.