Livestock Policy Analysis Brief no. 12. Participation in the construction of a local public good with indivisibilities: An application to watershed development in Ethiopia

Limitations of both the market and the state have caused a growing interest in the potentialities of local-level collective action for development. The burgeoning literature on collective action suffers from two main weaknesses. First, theoretical studies typically fail to describe inter-agent interactions in a satisfactory manner. Second, empirical studies do not provide adequate hard data and quantitative analysis to allow us to advance our knowledge about individual motives for co-operation and conditions conductive to the emergence and evolution of co-operative behaviour. This study is a modest attempt to fill this gap in knowledge by depicting collective action in the provision of an indivisible public good in a simple game-theoretical framework. It systematically investigates the joint role of leadership and private interests as key determinants of farmer participation in the construction of a local public good, namely a central drainage channel, in a watershed area of the Ethiopian highlands

La recherche scientifique face à la pêche artisanale = Research and small-scale fisheries

This paper is an attempt to highlight a new methodological approach for gaining a better understanding of contractual relationships prevailing in many fishing communities. Some key concepts drawn from the New Institutional Economic will be used with a view to demonstrating that risk and incentive considerations play a major role in the shaping of some well-known institutions found in these communities, in particular the share system of remuneration and credit systems designed to solve insurance problems. (Résumé d'auteur

Participation in the construction of a local public good with indivisibilities: An application to watershed development in Ethiopia

The logic of voluntary contributions to an indivisible public good is studied, firstly in a simple game-theoretical framework, then in an empirical investigation of a case of watershed development in the Ethiopian Highlands. The former approach emphasises the difference between the problem under attention and the classical representation of public good provision, i.e., the Prisoner's Dilemma. The latter approach emphasises the joint role of leadership and of private interests as key determinants of individual contributions, thereby illustrating the game-theoretical model and providing well-founded guidelines for similar collective actions

Mutual insurance as an elusive concept in traditional rural communities

During the last two decades, economists have paid increasing attention to the role of informal risk-sharing arrangements as a privileged way through which traditional rural communities can achieve a significant degree of protection against income fluctuations and other hazards beyond their control. This article however argues that when they enter into such arrangements members of these communities are guided by a principle of balanced reciprocity (they expect a return from any contribution or payment they make) rather than by a true logic of mutual insurance. More precisely, they do not conceive of insurance as a game where there are winners and losers and where income is redistributed between lucky and unlucky individuals. None the less, traditional agrarian societies have proven able to develop a restricted range of sustainable forms of mutual insurance that avoid the aforementioned problem.