Social capital, institutions and *development

مرکز و کتابخانه مطالعات اسلامی به زبان های اروپایی

منو

" Social capital, institutions and *development "
Muhammad Farooq Naseer R. Evenson

Document Type	:	Latin Dissertation
Language of Document	:	English
Record Number	:	53303
Doc. No	:	TL23257
Call number	:	‭3272425‬
Main Entry	:	Muhammad Farooq Naseer
Title & Author	:	Social capital, institutions and *development\ Muhammad Farooq Naseer
College	:	Yale University
Date	:	2007
Degree	:	Ph.D.
student score	:	2007
Page No	:	103
Abstract	:	Information problems often limit economic activity in less developed countries and it is well known that under these conditions, contracts and personal networks can facilitate market exchange. This dissertation investigates the role of market institutions and community organizations in economic development. Chapter 1 examines the cross-sectional variation in sugarcane prices in Pakistan with a view to find any quality incentives in the market. Anecdotal evidence suggests that sugar mills in Pakistan apply informal premiums to sugarcane prices (which are nominally set on the basis of weight) with a view to encourage a better quality product. Using detailed survey data on sugarcane prices and farm production, and controlling for unobserved village heterogeneity, we find no such return to the use of quality-inducing inputs. The analysis relies on input prices and mill effects to instrument for endogenous choice variables and the result is robust to alternative specifications. In the second chapter, I look at voluntary community organizations in a sample of 55 villages in the Philippines where I conducted my dissertation fieldwork and study the factors that determine their relative longevity. I estimate hazard models to predict the rate of failure using the data on a set of active and defunct community groups. My results consistently show that, controlling for community heterogeneity, groups that have regular elections tend to be the ones that survive longer as well-functioning organizations. I argue that this finding is relevant for the design of groups that make a lasting impression on a community. Chapter 3 examines whether social capital, in the sense of local organizational density, might help reduce transaction cost inefficiencies. T.W. Schultz (1953) hypothesized that villages located farther away from urban centers are likely to face higher transaction costs caused by a lack of information and market opportunities. But the recent literature on social capital posits a role for local networks and organizations in reducing such inefficiencies. I use data from two rounds of the Bicol Multi-purpose Panel survey to empirically test this hypothesis. Treating the effect of remoteness from the markets on the household's distance from the efficiency frontier as arising from transaction costs, I find that village social capital does lower (indirectly) the negative impact of these transaction costs on average household's productivity.
Subject	:	Social sciences; Development; Institutions; Pakistan; Philippines; Social capital; Sugar industry; Economics; Agricultural economics; Developing countries--LDCs; Economic development; Sugarcane; Prices; Models; Agricultural production; Studies; 0503:Agricultural economics; 0501:Economics
Added Entry	:	R. Evenson
Added Entry	:	Yale University