Vulnerability to poverty is still a major problem of rural households in developing countries.
Micro-economic analyses dominate this current debate on vulnerability. Most of these studies
do not take into account the fact that not only household assets but also the location of the
household affects its vulnerability. For example, the opportunity of gaining remunerative
regional non-agricultural income (RNAI) is unevenly distributed between peri-urban and
rural-remote regions. Peri-urban households face lower transportation costs and travel times
than their rural-remote counterparts. The aim of clarifying the spatial dimension of
vulnerability to poverty is part of a recently completed survey of 2,200 rural households in
northeastern Thailand. The survey itself is part a multi-disciplinary research project on
vulnerability in Thailand and Vietnam sponsored by the German Research Foundation (DFG).
The data obtained in this survey underline the importance of location: proving significant
differences between peri-urban and rural-remote households regarding transportation costs,
travel times and earnings from regional non-agricultural employment (RNAE).