The 'problem' of ethics in contemporary anthropological research

Why is it that ‘ethics’ is seen as a problem in anthropology? This paper seeks to explore this question by looking at (a) historical shifts in the relation between ethnographers and their subjects/informants and (b) anthropological practice. I am interested in past anthropological practice to see whether it provides a reasonable guide to future practice, specifically with regard to the ethical conduct of ethnographic fieldwor

Caught between the ideology and realities of development: Transiting from the Horn of Africa to Europe

While the teloi of development seeks to explicitly link an ideology of ‘market fundamentalism’to one of ‘rights-based development’, the reality of life for many in developing societies is characterized by growing inequality and despotic rule. In such situations many people leave in search of a better life or protection from persecution. This paper examines the hemorrhaging of people from Ethiopia and Eritrea and the obstacles they encounter as they cross international borders. It also examines the long term consequences which this population movement has for development in the Horn where, in the face of declining official aid flows, remittances from the Diaspora are likely to become increasingly important

BIODIESEL: WILL THERE BE ENOUGH?

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Does Saving Anticipate Declining Labor Income? An Alternative Test of the Permanent Income Hypothesis

The permanent income hypothesis implies that people save because they rationally expect their labor income to decline; they save "for a rainy day". It follows that saving should be at least as good a predictor of declines in labor income as any other forecast that can be constructed from publicly available information.The paper tests this hitherto ignored implication of the permanent income hypothesis, using quarterly aggregate data for the period 1953-84 in the U.S. A vector autoregression for saving and changes in labor income is used to generate an unrestricted forecast of declines in labor income. In the VAR, saving Granger causes labor income changes as one would expect if the PIH is true. The mean of the unrestricted forecast is far from the mean of saving, but the dynamics of the two series are quite similar.The paper presents both formal test statistics and an informal evaluation of the "fit" of the permanent income hypothesis. By contrast with most of the recent literature, the results here are valid when income is nonstationary.