Author: Vijayendra Rao
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : India
Languages : en
Pages : 30
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Book Description
The author examines the paradox of very poor households, spending large sums on celebrations. Using qualitative, and quantitative data from South India, the author demonstrates that spending on weddings, and festivals can be explained by integrating an anthropological understanding of how identity is shaped in Indian society, with an economic analysis of decision-making under conditions of extreme poverty, and risk. The author argues that publicly observable celebrations have two functions: they provide a space for maintaining social reputations, and webs of obligation, and, they serve as arenas for status-making competitions. The first role is central to maintaining the networks essential for social relationships, and coping with poverty. The second is a correlate of mobility that may become more prevalent as incomes rise. Development policies that favor individual over collective action, reduce the incentives for the networking function, and increase the incentives for status-enhancing functions - thus reducing social cohesion, and increasing conspicuous consumption. Market-driven improvements in urban employment, for example, could reduce a family's dependence on its traditional networks, could reduce incentives to maintain these networks, and could reduce social cohesion within a village, and thus its capacity for collective action. In contrast, micro-finance programs, and social funds try to retain, and even build a community's capacity for collective action.
Author: Vijayendra Rao
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
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Book Description
January 2001 Very poor households spend large sums on celebrations. To the extent that these expenditures are central to maintaining the networks essential for social relationships and coping with poverty, these are reasonable expenses. To the extent that they are status competitions, they may merely increase conspicuous consumption. Rao examines the paradox of very poor households spending large sums on celebrations. Using qualitative and quantitative data from South India, Rao demonstrates that spending on weddings and festivals can be explained by integrating an anthropological understanding of how identity is shaped in Indian society with an economic analysis of decisionmaking under conditions of extreme poverty and risk. Rao argues that publicly observable celebrations have two functions: they provide a space for maintaining social reputations and webs of obligation, and they serve as arenas for status-making competitions. The first role is central to maintaining the networks essential for social relationships and coping with poverty. The second is a correlate of mobility that may become more prevalent as incomes rise. Development policies that favor individual over collective action reduce the incentives for the networking function and increase the incentives for status-enhancing functions--thus reducing social cohesion and increasing conspicuous consumption. Market-driven improvements in urban employment, for example, could reduce a family's dependence on its traditional networks, could reduce incentives to maintain these networks, and could reduce social cohesion within a village and thus its capacity for collective action. In contrast, microfinance programs and social funds try to retain and even build a community's capacity for collective action. This paper--a product of Poverty and Human Resources, Development Research Group--is part of a larger effort in the group to study the relationship between poverty and collective action. The author may be contacted at
[email protected].
Author: Vijayendra Rao
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 26
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Book Description
Very poor households spend large sums on celebrations. To the extent that these expenditures are central to maintaining the networks essential for social relationships and coping with poverty, these are reasonable expenses. To the extent that they are status competitions, they may merely increase conspicuous consumption.Rao examines the paradox of very poor households spending large sums on celebrations. Using qualitative and quantitative data from South India, Rao demonstrates that spending on weddings and festivals can be explained by integrating an anthropological understanding of how identity is shaped in Indian society with an economic analysis of decisionmaking under conditions of extreme poverty and risk.Rao argues that publicly observable celebrations have two functions: they provide a space for maintaining social reputations and webs of obligation, and they serve as arenas for status-making competitions.The first role is central to maintaining the networks essential for social relationships and coping with poverty. The second is a correlate of mobility that may become more prevalent as incomes rise.Development policies that favor individual over collective action reduce the incentives for the networking function and increase the incentives for status- enhancing functions - thus reducing social cohesion and increasing conspicuous consumption.Market-driven improvements in urban employment, for example, could reduce a family's dependence on its traditional networks, could reduce incentives to maintain these networks, and could reduce social cohesion within a village and thus its capacity for collective action. In contrast, microfinance programs and social funds try to retain and even build a community's capacity for collective action.This paper - a product of Poverty and Human Resources, Development Research Group - is part of a larger effort in the group to study the relationship between poverty and collective action. The author may be contacted at
[email protected].
Author:
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 47
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Book Description
Author: François Bourguignon
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 0821354914
Category : Economic assistance
Languages : en
Pages : 440
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Book Description
Reviews techniques and tools that can be used to evaluate the poverty and distributional impact of economic policy choices. This title describes the most robust techniques and tools, from the simplest to the most complex, and aims to identify best practices. It also addresses an evaluation technique and its applications.
Author: Vijayendra Rao
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804747875
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 462
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Book Description
Led by Amartya Sen, Mary Douglas, and Arjun Appadurai, the distinguished anthropologists and economists in this book forcefully argue that culture is central to development, and present a framework for incorporating culture into development discourse. For further information on the book and related essays, please visit www.cultureandpublicaction.org.
Author: Jacques Silber
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1800883455
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 777
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Book Description
Encompassing chapters that address both unidimensional and multidimensional poverty, this timely Research Handbook explores all aspects of poverty and deprivation measurement, not only detailing broad issues but also scrutinising specific domains and aspects of poverty, such as health, energy and housing. Its succinct and highly focussed chapters, written by a diverse range of authors, employ a combination of theoretical and empirical methodologies to offer well-rounded explorations of complex topics.
Author: Martin Ravallion
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190212772
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 737
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Book Description
"An overview of the economic development of and policies intended to combat poverty around the world"--Provided by publisher.
Author: Deepa Narayan-Parker
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 0821360574
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 500
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Book Description
Large-scale poverty reduction depends on the effective empowerment of poor people themselves. This publication sets out a conceptual framework that can be used to monitor and evaluate empowerment programmes, based on papers written by practitioners and researchers in a wide variety of fields, including economics and political science, sociology and psychology, anthropology and demography. These papers draw on research and practical experience at different levels, from households to communities to nations and in various regions of the world.
Author: Paul Rhode
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804771855
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 484
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Book Description
Papers originally presented at a conference sponsored by Stanford University's Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) and held Sept. 26-27, 2008.
