Redefinition of the Poverty Based on Risks and Opportunities

Reasonable definition and understanding of the concept and the reasons of poverty are the important foundations of making anti-poverty policy. The definition of poverty is the dynamic process of continuous development and improvement of poverty characteristic based on different stages and periods. China is one of countries facing the most serious problems of poverty in the world.In the new stage of anti-poverty,the original definition and causes of poverty has been unable to explain the characteristics of the poverty in the new period comprehensively. It needs further to enrich and perfect the concept and the causes of poverty to formulate rational and effective anti-poverty policies and methods. In this paper,literature method was used to summarize the definition and causes of poverty in different periods at home and abroad. It was found that the interpretation of the poverty from only income factors to comprehensive consideration on capacity,power,social exclusion,vulnerability,etc. The causes of poverty are mainly adverse system theory,lack of capital deals and environmental constraints theory. Although the vulnerability of the concept and causes of poverty involved risk factors,most of scholars regarded vulnerability as a sign of lacking rights for poverty groups,which not highlighted the importance of the risk in the connotation of poverty,especially without involving the important role of grasping opportunity playing in the anti-poverty. Therefore,this paper argued that in the process of the formation of the poverty in the new period,the connotation of poverty should be expanded and perfected. Poverty is caused by lacking of ability to cope with risk impact and not grasping the opportunity to gain a better life. Risk impact factors and the lack of opportunity are the essence of poverty. The essence of opportunity lacking is the difference between the individual risk preferences. The researches of individual risk preference introduced by experimental economics in recent years have opened research vision of the individual risk preference. Therefore this paper designed the poverty framework based on the analysis of risk and opportunity,which provides a new thought and framework for the anti-poverty research. It was also put forward that the effective risk management is an important means for farmers out of poverty. Effective risk management will make the possibility of poverty lowest,which is also the most cost-saving anti-poverty method at the same time.