Group Behaviour and Development Is the Market Destroying Cooperation?

by Heyer, Judith; Stewart, Frances; Thorp, Rosemary

• ISBN13: 9780199256921
• ISBN10: 0199256926
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-11-28
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This book focuses on group behaviour in developing countries. It includes studies of producer and community organizations, NGOs, and some public sector groups. Despite the fact that most economic decisions are taken by people acting within groups -- families, firms, neighbourhood or community associations, and networks of producers -- the analysis of group functioning has not received enough attention, particularly among economists. Some groups function well, from the perspectives of equity, efficiency, and well-being, while others do not. This book explores why. It covers groups that perform three types of function: overcoming market failures (e.g. producer organizations); improving the position of their members (e.g. TradeUnions), and distributing resources to the less well-off (e.g. NGOs and the public sector). It contrasts three modes of group behaviour: power and control; cooperation; and the use of material incentives. It explores what determines modes of behaviour of groups, and the consequences for efficiency,equity, and well-being. The book includes eleven case studies by different authors, including producers' associations in Brazil, farmers' organizations in Korea and Taiwan, community forestry groups in South Asia, organizations of sex-workers in Calcutta, and health NGOs in Uganda. Claims groups tended to be the mostcooperative, cooperation fostering empowerment and self-esteem. Distributive or pro bono groups mostly operated according to power and control, while market failure groups often combined all three modes.The studies show the strong impact of norms in society as a whole on group behaviour. The recent shift towards a stronger role for market incentives has exerted powerful pressures on groups to use more material incentives, undermining the cooperation essential to sustain efficiency and equity. Theuniversal presumption in favour of monetary incentives needs to be abandoned. Non-market behaviour needs to be valued and protected as well.

Table of Contents

Notes on Contributors	xi
List of Figures	xv
List of Tables	xvi
Group Behaviour and Development	1	(22)
Judith Heyer
J. Mohan Rao
Frances Stewart
Rosemary Thorp
Dynamic Interactions Between the Macro-environment, Development Thinking, and Group Behaviour	23	(28)
Frances Stewart
Individual Motivation, its Nature, Determinants, and Consequences for Within-group Behaviour	51	(24)
Sabina Alkire
Severine Deneulin
Collective Action for Local-level Effort Regulation: An Assessment of Recent Experiences in Senegalese Small-scale Fisheries	75	(30)
Frederic Gaspart
Jean-Philippe Platteau
Leaders and Intermediaries as Economic Development Agents in Producers' Associations	105	(20)
Tito Bianchi
Group Behaviour and Development: A Comparison of Farmers' Organizations in South Korea and Taiwan	125	(20)
Larry Burmeister
Gustav Ranis
Michael Wang
Has the Coffee Federation become Redundant? Collective Action and the Market in Colombian Development	145	(16)
Rosemary Thorp
Producer Groups and the Decollectivization of the Mongolian Pastoral Economy	161	(24)
David Sneath
The Hidden Side of Group Behaviour: A Gender Analysis of Community Forestry in South Asia	185	(24)
Bina Agarwal
Informal Women's Groups in Rural Bangladesh: Operation and Outcomes	209	(18)
Simeen Mahmud
Sex Workers in Calcutta and the Dynamics of Collective Action: Political Activism, Community Identity, and Group Behaviour	227	(26)
Nandini Gooptu
Non-market Relationships in Health Care	253	(18)
Maureen Mackintosh
Lucy Gilson
Institutional Cultures and Regulatory Relationships in a Liberalizing Health Care System: A Tanzanian Case Study	271	(20)
Paula Tibandebage
Maureen Mackintosh
The Case of Indigenous NGOs in Uganda's Health Sector	291	(16)
Christy Cannon Lorgen
Conclusions	307	(20)
Judith Heyer
Frances Stewart
Rosemary Thorp
References	327	(30)
Index	357