Making a Market: The Institutional Transformation of an African Society

ISBN-13: 9780521574266 / Angielski / Miękka / 1996 / 234 str.

Jean Ensminger; Randall Calvert; Thrainn Eggertsson

Opis

In Making a Market, Jean Ensminger analyzes the process by which the market was introduced into the economy of a group of Kenyan pastoralists. Professor Ensminger employs new institutional economic analysis to assess the impact of new market institutions on production and distribution, with particular emphasis on the effect of institutions on decreasing transaction costs over time. This study traces the effects of increasing commercialization on the economic well-being of individual households, rich and poor alike, over considerable time and analyzes the process by which institutions themselves are transformed as a market economy develops. This case study points out the importance of understanding the roles of ideology and bargaining power--in addition to pure economic forces, such as changing relative prices--in shaping market institutions.

Recenzje

"This book makes an important contribution to the literature on development, institutions and the understanding of change in Africa." Mwangi wa Githinji, University of California, Riverside, in Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization

Spis treści

1. A proper marriage: new institutional economic anthropology; 2. Transaction costs: the history of trade among the Orma; 3. Distribution of the gains from trade; 4. Agency theory: patron-client relations as a form of labor contracting; 5. Property rights: dismantling the commons; 6. Collective action: from community to state; 7. Conclusion: ideology and the economy.