Peasant Economics: Farm Households in Agrarian DevelopmentCambridge University Press, 1993 M11 25 - 309 pages This is a revised and expanded edition of a popular textbook on the economics of farm households in developing countries. The second edition retains the same building blocks designed to explore household decision-making in a social context. Key topics are efficiency, risk, time allocation, gender, agrarian contracts, farm size and technological change. For these and other topics, household economic behavior represents the outcome of social interactions within the household, and market interactions outside the household. A new chapter on the environment combines exposition of economic tools not previously covered in the book with examination of household and community decision-making in relation to environmental resources. |
Contents
Peasants | 3 |
Peasant societies | 5 |
The peasant farm household | 7 |
The economic definition of peasants | 9 |
Family household and women | 14 |
Summary | 15 |
The neoclassical theory of farm production | 17 |
The production function | 18 |
Models of sharecropping | 148 |
Risk imperfect information and missing markets | 153 |
Interlocked markets | 156 |
Sharecropping as exploitation | 158 |
The diversity of agrarian contracts | 159 |
Policy aspects | 160 |
Wider perspectives | 162 |
Further reading | 164 |
Substitution between inputs | 28 |
Enterprise choice | 33 |
the linear programming approach | 38 |
Summary | 41 |
Further reading | 44 |
Elements of peasant political economy | 45 |
Concepts in Marxian political economy | 47 |
Application to peasant production | 51 |
Peasants and surplus | 54 |
Peasants and the state | 57 |
Further reading | 59 |
The theory of the optimising peasant | 61 |
Introduction | 63 |
The profit maximising peasant | 65 |
Allocative technical and economic efficiency | 67 |
In pursuit of the efficient peasant | 70 |
Policy aspects | 76 |
Wider perspectives | 78 |
Summary | 80 |
Further reading | 81 |
The riskaverse peasant | 82 |
Types of uncertainty | 83 |
Definitions of risk and uncertainty | 84 |
Analysis of risk behaviour | 86 |
Expected utility and decision theory | 90 |
Research into peasant risk behaviour | 95 |
Policy aspects | 99 |
Wider perspectives | 101 |
Summary | 102 |
Further reading | 103 |
The drudgeryaverse peasant | 105 |
Revision of indifference curve analysis | 106 |
The Chayanov farm household model | 109 |
Policy aspects | 117 |
Wider perspectives | 118 |
Summary | 120 |
Further reading | 121 |
The farm household peasant | 123 |
New home economics | 126 |
The BarnumSquire farm household model | 131 |
The Low farm household model | 139 |
Policy aspects | 142 |
Summary | 143 |
Further reading | 145 |
The sharecropping peasant | 146 |
Comparative summary | 166 |
Inside the peasant household | 169 |
Women in the peasant household | 171 |
Concepts for the analysis of women | 172 |
Time allocation and the economic role of peasant farm women | 176 |
Scope of the new home economics | 180 |
Alternative approaches to intrahousehold economics | 183 |
Time constraints as an example | 187 |
Policy aspects | 191 |
Summary | 192 |
Further reading | 194 |
Further topics and overview | 199 |
Farm size and factor productivity | 201 |
Economic concepts of scale and farm size | 202 |
Inverse relationship of farm size and productivity | 206 |
Imperfect factor markets and social efficiency | 211 |
Further considerations | 218 |
Summary | 220 |
Further reading | 221 |
Technical change | 223 |
Economic analysis of technical change | 224 |
Farm mechanisation | 235 |
Modern varieties | 240 |
Peasants again | 243 |
Summary | 244 |
Further reading | 245 |
Environment | 248 |
Household decisions and sustainability | 251 |
The concept of externality | 254 |
Rivalry exclusion and property rights | 259 |
Open access resources | 262 |
Common property resources and collective action | 266 |
Environmental policies | 270 |
Summary | 271 |
Further reading | 273 |
Peasant economics in perspective | 276 |
Farm household economic theories | 277 |
Political economy | 280 |
Intrahousehold relations | 282 |
Social and economic change | 283 |
Environmental aspects | 284 |
| 286 | |
| 299 | |
| 303 | |
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Common terms and phrases
agrarian agricultural allocative efficiency behaviour capital capitalist Chapter Chayanov common property concept constraints consumption context crop developing countries division of labour economic analysis environmental example factor markets factor prices farm household model farm output farm production farmers fertilizer Figure given graph higher hired household decision impact imperfect income increase indifference curve individual innovation interlocked inverse isoquant labour input labour market land landowner leisure marginal physical product marginal product marginal utility market wage Marxian modern varieties neoclassical economics non-market occurs opportunity cost optimum output price paddy peasant economy peasant farm household peasant household peasant production peasant societies production function profit maximising ratio refers relations of production reproduction risk risk-averse rural sharecropping slope small farm substitution summary technical change tenant theory tractors TVP2 uncertainty unit utility function value product variable inputs wage labour women yield
Popular passages
Page 293 - Public Research Resource Allocation in Chinese Agriculture: A Test of Induced Technological Innovation Hypotheses," Economic Development and Cultural Change , Vol. 40. No. 1, pp. 55 — 73, October 1991b. Lin, Justin Yifu, "The Household Responsibility System Reform and the Adoption of Hybrid Rice in China , " Journal of Development Economics, Vol.