Genocide and Land Scarcity: Can Rwandan Rural Households Manage?

During the nineties, Rwandan households had to cope with severe shocks of war and genocide. In addition, two major structural problems in Rwanda, land scarcity and declining soil fertility, remain unsolved. How do Rwandan households manage? This is an important question from a development perspective, but also from a security perspective, because uneven development increases the risk of peace collapse. To find an answer to our question, we study welfare gains and losses of a sample of 189 Rwandan rural households over the period 1990-2002. In our sample, many households were severely affected by the genocide. In addition, poverty and inequality increased. Moreover, we observe a lot of income mobility. Only one quarter of the households remained in the same income quintile over time. Especially the households headed by widows and prisoner's wives moved downward in the income distribution. Households who reduced their dependence on subsistence agriculture moved upward.

Testing for the Existence of Bargaining in Rural Households: a Study of Decisions on Labor Market Participation in the Cordillera Region of the Philippines

In this paper we derive testable implications of a unitary farm household model and a non-unitary, i.e. bargaining, model. In the unitary household model the impact of spouse specific resources and non-labor income on household decisions should not be different from that of the resources and non-labor income common to the household. In a bargaining model we expect to find a specific impact of spouse specific resources and non-labor income. Our empirical tests are based on a small survey of households in the Cordillera region of Northern Luzon (Philippines). In this region each spouse retains specific rights on her/his inherited land, although within marriage this land is treated as part of the household farm. Inherited land is a truly exogenous variable, which we use as the indicator of bargaining power. We perform probit regressions in which the spouses’ inherited land is a determinant of the probability that a husband or wife participates in the labor market. The statistical results provide some evidence of a specific impact of spouse specific land on labor market participation decisions and therefore cast doubt on the unitary farm household model. They are compatible with a bargaining model of household behavior.

Dictatorship in a Single Export Crop Economy

Is it a matter of pure altruism or shortsightedness when a dictator spends an increasing amount of his revenues for the population, while cutting on own consumption? In order to be able to consume, the dictator first has to stay in power. We present a formal model of a power maximizing dictator. His revenues depend on the exports of a single crop. With the export earnings the dictator buys loyalty from the producers of the export crop by setting the domestic producer price. Revenues resulting from the di®erence between the international and the domestic price of the crop are used to finance a repressive apparatus. We characterize the optimal trade-o® between buying more loyalty and adapting the level of repression. The model is illustrated with a case study of Rwanda under president Habyarimana (1973-94).dictatorship, political economy, co®ee, Rwanda.

Dictatorship in a single export crop economy

Is it a matter of pure altruism or short-sightedness when a dictator spends an increasing amount of his revenues for the population, while cutting on own consumption? In order to be able to consume, the dictator first has to stay in power. We present a formal model of a power maximizing dictator. His revenues depend on the exports of a single crop. With the export earnings the dictator buys loyalty from the producers of the export crop by setting the domestic producer price. Revenues resulting from the difference between the international and the domestic price of the crop are used to finance a repressive apparatus. We characterize the optimal trade-off between buying more loyalty and adapting the level of repression. The model is illustrated with a case study of Rwanda under president Habyarimana (1973-94).dictatorship, political economy, coffee, Rwanda.

Mundialidad hispánica y literatura de la migración

Este artículo trata del lugar que ocupa la literatura de la migración hispánica en el hispanoamericanismo contemporáneo al retratar las dinámicas reflexiones que abre así como sus límites. En un primer apartado, nos detendremos en el despertar de esta cuestión en el hispanismo e hispanoamericanismo europeo para, después, apuntar los rasgos definitorios de lo que ha venido a llamarse «literatura de la migración». Finalmente, se examinará la dimensión poscolonial que la producción y circulación de dichas obras implican en el marco de un debate acerca de una posible «mundialidad hispánica»

Arena negra, Juan Carlos Méndez Guédez

En mayo de 2013 Juan Carlos Méndez Guédez (Barquisimeto, Venezuela, 1967) acababa de publicar su octava novela Arena negra. Después de una breve reseña, les propongo un diálogo veraniego con el prolífico escritor.Juan Carlos Méndez Guédez (Barquisimeto, Venezuela, 1967) est un auteur prolifique et novateur : il est le créateur d’une vingtaine d’œuvres, romans et nouvelles confondus, qu’il a publié en Espagne et en Amérique Latine. Au travers d’une prose imagée et délicate, J. C. Méndez Guédez sait nous entraîner dans le monde de la migration hispanique, thématique on ne peut plus actuelle, depuis des perspectives singulières. Il y a quelques mois à peine, apparaissait son huitième roman Arena Negra qui revisite les allers et retours entre les deux continents mais, cette fois, son récit s’attarde aussi sur les îles qui sont sur le chemin, les Canaries. Après un bref compte-rendu de cette œuvre, je vous propose un entretien avec l’écrivain où il évoque ses inspirations, la recherche formelle… et la traduction

The 4-H Harvest: Sexuality and the State in Rural America

Review of: "The 4-H Harvest: Sexuality and the State in Rural America", by Gabriel N. Rosenberg

The 4-H Harvest: Sexuality and the State in Rural America

Review of: The 4-H Harvest: Sexuality and the State in Rural America , by Gabriel N. Rosenberg