Attitudes toward Uncertainty among the Poor: Evidence from Rural Ethiopia

We looked at risk and ambiguity attitudes among Ethiopian peasants in one of the poorest regions of the world and compared their attitudes to a standard Western university student sample elicited by the same decision task. Strong risk aversion and ambiguity aversion were found with the Ethiopian peasants. Ambiguity aversion was similar for peasants and students, but peasants were more risk averse. Testing for the effect of socio-economic variables on uncertainty attitudes showed that poor health increased both risk and ambiguity aversion.risk attitudes, ambiguity attitudes, poverty, cultural differences

Behavioral Decision of Employment for Rural Labors: Evidence from Peasant Households in Central China

Based on the facts of the peasant household and its labors, this paper analyses rational behavior strategy of the peasants and studies the microeconomic impact factors on the peasant behavior of employment with a discrete choice model. According to Econometric analysis, conclusions has been derived as follows: Firstly, the peasants behavior of employment is consistent with their wills to raise their income; Secondly, the peasants allocate labor resource in their peasant household on comparative advantages; Thirdly, non-agricultural job opportunity is a vital channel to release recessive unemployment and achieve sufficient employment of rural labors; Finally, peasants in different areas show slightly different tendency on obtaining non-agricultural jobs.rural labors, impact factors, employment choice,

Fiscal Decentralization and Peasants' Financial Burden in China

This paper sheds light on the heavy financial burden on peasants in China's fiscal decentralization system. Using a political economy framework, this paper explores the tax-farming nature of China's fiscally decentralized system and examines why the system incurs a particularly heavy financial burden on peasants. Specifically, it points out that a political hierarchy financed by a tax-farming system in China, fails to contain the exploitative behavior of local officials, which results in the expenditure devolution and revenue centralization within the hierarchy. Ultimately, peasants bear the brunt of the tax burden. As the financial pressure of excessive levies and fees reaches a perilous point, peasants are resorting to violent protests. Unless a fiscally decentralized system with horizontal accountability mechanisms evolves, the country's ability to sustain a centralized polity may become increasingly undermined. A case study of township finance is used to exemplify the exploitative nature of China's fiscal decentralization system.Fiscal Decentralization, Corruption, Financial Burden, China

Why Nicaraguan Peasants Remain in Agricultural Production Cooperatives

Many Nicaraguan peasants remain members in agricultural production cooperatives despite the change in the policy environment that now supports parcellation of cooperative lands into individual holdings. Institutional factors, such as uncertainty of land ownership rights and difficulties with resolution of cooperative debt, are found to play a dominant role in keeping Nicaraguan peasants in cooperatives.Agribusiness,

Leisure and Agrarian Reform: Liberal Governance in the Traveling Museums of Spanish Misiones Pedagógicas (1931–1933)

This article examines the program of bringing itinerant art museums to the rural areas implemented by the Misiones Pedagógicas of Spain’s Second Republic. My analysis seeks to answer the following questions: a) Why did the government support these initiatives while peasants were using violence to contest its agrarian reform? b) How did museums fit into the Republic’s program of public education? And 3) how did they treat the peasants\u27 own culture? Tracing the philosophical foundations of the Museo del Pueblo in Manuel Bartolomé de Cosso\u27s (1857–1935) theory of leisure, I discuss Cosso\u27s indebtedness to late-Victorian uses of art education for the poor and to krausista philosophy. I argue that the Museo del Pueblo’s and the Misiones\u27 emphasis on raising the spirit of citizenship by reorganizing peasants\u27 free time constituted an experiment in liberal governance that responded to the urgent political need to implement a democratic policy for ruling the masses

Industrial Upgrade, Adverse Employment Shock and Land Centralization

Traditional Development Economics defines economic development in the view of transferring rural surplus labor force. It implies the industrialization is in a static state at a certain level while it is in a process of continuous industrial upgrade in reality. Under the circumstances, we analyze phenomenon followed by the upgrading of industrial structure such as return migration and mid-aged rural labors’ difficulty in job-hunting and demonstrated the influence of land centralization based on the practice of industrial upgrade and rural change in Suzhou. Finally it come to the conclusion that because of the extensive competition on simple-labor market, the industrial upgrade will make a adverse employment shock upon mid-aged rural labor which will lead to the more uncertainty of peasants to get jobs in the industrial section . If government takes an improper policy of land centralization, peasants will lose guarantee in the future and resist the land centralization. After the comparison between one-off compensation and land cooperation, a further demonstration show that the method of one-off compensation will depress peasants’ enthusiasm in land centralization while the form of land cooperation can guarantee and promote peasants’ welfare under the given institution of land ownership. As a result, land cooperation allows the smooth operation of land centralization and supports the industrial upgrade to some extent.Over-confidence，Regional Government Competition，Redundant Construction，Yangzte River Delta

Aid, peasants and social exclusion

Using unique village census data collected in 2003 and 2008 in Senegal, we assess the impact of a major World Bank-funded Community Driven Development (CDD) program on membership and assortative matching in community-based organizations (CBOs). We implement both standard discrete choice and dyadic regression techniques. We find that channeling development aid through CBOs makes these organizations more inclusive in the sense that a number of tradition-bound assortative matching patterns are partly broken. Ceteris paribus, this leads to more heterogeneous CBOs. On the other hand, the likelihood of CBO membership is reduced in treated villages, with significant differences between men and women. Our results suggest that grassroots level development projects which target CBOs must be carefully designed and executed if they are not to result, paradoxically, in a greater degree of social exclusion, with differentiation by gender playing a crucial role.Community Based Organizations, Dyadic Regression, Gender Differences, Social Exclusion

Study of Chinese Peasants’ in Situ Entrepreneurial Project Categories and Their Market Prospects

Currently, Chinese government at all levels actively support peasants’ entrepreneurships in situ and returned migrant workers’ entrepreneurships in situ. It is necessary to analyze entrepreneurial project categories and their market prospects in order to support peasants’ entrepreneurships. Chinese peasants’ in situ entrepreneurial projects refer to various entrepreneurial projects which are suitable for the conditions where peasants are located. There are practical market backgrounds for peasants to start a business in situ and motivations to change their current living conditions. There are general entrepreneurial projects for peasants as well as specific entrepreneurial project categories and their market prospects for peasants in specific location such as Fengdu County. Hope these entrepreneurial project categories and their market prospects for peasants can provide reference for the analysis of peasants’ in situ entrepreneurial projects and their market prospects in different places in China.

The Economics of Price Scissors : An Empirical Investigation for China.

The Sah-Stiglitz "Economics of Price Scissors' model, concerning the political economy of price scissors, formulates the optimal terms of trade against peasants. In the present paper, by extending this model to an open economy and allowing agricultural rationing, we first check if the model stands up to China's data from 1949-1992, we find that the importance of peasants in the government's objective function is less than the importance of workers. In addition, the importance of consumption is also less than that of investment. Such findings are consistent with the reality of China.China, Price Scissors, trade, political economy