Social Norms and Economic Development

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merican Economic ssociation

Institutions, Social Norms, and Economic Development: Fundamentals of DevelopmentEconomics, Volume 1 by Jean-Philippe PlatteauReview by: Jeffrey B. NugentJournal of Economic Literature, Vol. 39, No. 4 (Dec., 2001), pp. 1273-1275Published by: American Economic AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2698557 .

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Book Reviews

1273

changes in the readings selected as well as in

the extensive comments which provide an

overview of each chapter and build concep-

tual bridges between the selections.

There

are, in addition, some explanatory notes that

are extremely helpful, including a lucid defi-

nition of various types of rents (Note lxB.1),

and a guide to reading a table of regression

results (in the appendix).

It should

also

be noted that the overall

technical level

of

the volume

has

been

raised

substantially, rendering

at least some

of

the

selections more appropriate

for the

interme-

diate rather than the beginning student of

development economics. Some contributions,

e.g., Kiminori Matsuyama on Agricultural

Productivity, Comparative Advantage and

Economic Growth and Sherman Robinson on

the Kuznets inverse U-shaped hypothesis,

are unnecessarily esoteric and mathematical

in

treatment. On the other hand, the contin-

ued heavy

reliance on

excerpts

from Arthur

Lewis and Lloyd Reynolds helps right the

balance.

But

the

volume also has

some

outright

weaknesses.

For

example, chapter 1,

the in-

troductory chapter, is extremely choppy

and

not well organized. It begs for more back-

ground on the history

of

thought, from the

Classical School to

modern

times;

and it

confronts the unsuspecting reader

with

page

upon page on the complexities

of the Human

Development Index-while

the

basic con-

cept

of

human

development

and

its

relation

to

growth, distribution, and poverty

is

not

addressed anywhere.

Chapter

4

addresses

the

hoary

chestnut of

markets

versus government

intervention. Un-

fortunately, the authors choose to

feature

Balassa versus Rodrik, representing rather ex-

treme

positions.

To reduce

reader

confusion,

a

more

moderate

or

Solomonic

selection

might

have been

added or substituted to

reader

advantage.

I

also was

not

happy with

the

selections

surrounding

he

intersectoral

Lewis

vs. Harris-

Todaro discussion

in

chapter

6.

Such critical

issues as the intersectoral commodity market

and the intersectoral

terms of

trade are

neglected.

And

the

Tidrick selection on

wage

spillover, unemployment and wage gaps in

the -same

chapter

is off

the main track,

overly

technical and likely to be confusing to

all

but

the most sophisticated.

Small-scale supervised credit to the rural

poor has deservedly received policy-makers'

attention of late. Nevertheless, recent second

thoughts on the Grameen Bank should have

been reflected in the notes accompanying the

rather uncritical

selection.

Another area which the next edition could

well improve upon is the new institutional

economics which is given short shrift, as is

the recently emerging

issue

of

technology

transfer and intellectual property rights.

Finally, chapter

8 on

Sustainable Develop-

ment is exceedingly heavy

on

deforesta-

tion, while air, water pollution, and global

warming, among the most important global

public goods,

are

either

neglected

or seen

as

concerns only for the industrial countries.

It should

not be

surprising that

a

new

co-

author appearing on the scene is accompa-

nied by some problems of transition. But

these

problems

in no

way

detract

from the

basic assessment that Leading

Issues in Eco-

nomic Development continues to be

one

of

the

leading texts

in

the

field.

Moreover,

I am

convinced that the next

edition

will address

some of the inevitable imperfections and

present an

even

better blend of

the

old

and the new.

GUSTAV

RANIS

Yale

University

Institutions,Social

Norms,

and EconomicDevel-

opment:

Fundanentalsof Development

Eco-

nomics,Volufme . By

Jean-PhilippePlatteau.

Reading,

UK: Harwood

Academic,

2000.

Pp. xxiv,384. $60.00.

ISBN 90-5823-058-9.

JEL 2001-0792

This is a development economist's develop-

ment economics book.

Professor Platteau

knows

the developing

countries not just by

their

statistical

offices,

finance

ministries,

and lecture halls

but through extensive

field

experience and acquaintance

with

both

theoretical and

applied literatures on

development

in a

number

of different

disciplines.

The

book goes deeply

into

its

subject

mat-

ter though,

as

its title

suggests,

it

focuses

rather sharply on institutions and social

norms. In fact, the

institutions it

deals with







1274 Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. XXXIX(December

2001)

are largely

confined to propertyrights

in

land

and the social norms treated

are those per-

taining to

egalitarian attitudes, cooperation,

and trust. Platteau

is

concerned

with the

evolution

and stability characteristics of

these norms. As

he

admits, the

book is

heavily,

though

not exclusively, focused on

Sub-Saharan

Africa (SSA).

There are eight chapters.

The first two are

introductoryliterature surveys,

chapter

1

pro-

viding an overview

of competing approaches

to

the subject

matter,

and

chapter

2

an ana-

lytic description of the environmental

condi-

tions affecting

the

economies

of

SSA.

Chap-

ters

3

and

4

deal

with property

rights

in

land.

The remaining chapters deal with norms,

chapter 5

with

egalitarian

norms and their

determinants

and

consequences, chapters

6

and

7

with

the

emergence

of

markets

and

norms

supporting them,

first

at the village

level and then

at the societal level. Chapter

8

is concerned with the evolution

of norms and

resulting path

dependence. It also provides

a brief conclusion.

The

references

are ex-

tremely

rich and numerous, filling

32

pages

of small

type.

Although

each chapter provides a compre-

hensive treatment of the literature relevant to

its subject matter, the book

also,

stakes out

some

interesting

and

perhaps

controversial

positions.

Several themes

run

through the

various

chapters.

The

overarching theme

is that develop-

ment is

not easy;

none of the various funda-

mentalist positions

that has been staked out

in

the standard

development literature

is

valid.

The need

for institutional

reforms is

not

enough

to

bring

them

about.

The

prob-

lems

of

developing countries

in general and

SSA in

particular,

moreover,

are

not

simply

attributableto the presence

of bad, dishonest

policy

makers who

get

the

prices

and

policies

wrong,

-or

who

fail

to

establish

private prop-

erty rights.

This is

not

to deny

an

important

role, for

well-defined property

rights

and

well-functioning

markets in

the

development

process, but rather

to

argue

that these institu-

tions

neither

emerge

automatically

nor

can

they simply

be-

transferred

from

rich

to

poor

countries

by

external

agents.

Instead, people

and conditions have to be prepared so that

the

appropriate

and efficient

technologies

and institutions can

be accepted. This is

not

easy anywhere,especially

in SSA.

According to Platteau,

the difficulties

in

SSA arise from its

low population density.

This

impedes inter-group communication

and

the development of trust

extending beyond

the confines

of the family and

small group

toward institutions favorable to

the develop-

ment of markets and

the production of public

goods.

Another

interesting hypothesis

is that

it is the absence,

not the presence, of sup-

posedly

norm-eroding

markets that impedes

the development

of cooperation-supporting

social norms.

To

its

credit, the book is non-technical

and

accessible to a wide range of readers but is by

no means analytically

weak.

Indeed,

it

makes

quite

extensive use

of

elementary game the-

ory,

briefly

and

simplydescribes

he

gist

of

some

relatively sophisticated

theoretical arguments,

and

identifies subtle methodological

pitfalls

of

relevant empirical

studies.

After

extolling

a few

of

the

book's

many

virtues,

it

is

only

fair to

identify some

short-

comings,

most of

which are acknowledged by

the author and stem

from his deliberate deci-

sions about

what

to focus

on.

For example,

the SSAfocus rules out more extensive use of

material

from

other

regions that may

or may

not

fit

with

the author's conclusions.

The

focus

on

property rights

in land

largely

rules

out

related

property

rights

such as

in man

and intellectual property.

The

focus on

the

aforementioned social norms unfortunately

seems to

rule

out treatment

of

norms

pertain-

ing

to

the intrahousehold

division

of

labor,

decision-making,

gender

biases in resource

allocation,

and

intergenerational

equity.

Even

if

some of these

omissions

are under-

standable

in

the interest

of

focus,

because

of their interrelationships with

the issues

treated

they

are also

costly.

Second, despite

the fact that

the author

(like

others in this

field)

makes

a

big

deal

of

path dependence,

his demonstrationof

it makes

less

use

of

solid

economic histories

of SSA

itself

(as opposed

to

Italy)

than

might have

been

expected.

Third,

in

blaming

SSA's

poor

record

of

insti-

tutional

and economic

development

on

low

population

density,

Professor

Platteau

gives

insufficient attention to the following: (1)

how

and

why such

problems

were overcome







Book Reviews

1275

historically in the Americas and parts of

Europe but

not in

SSA; (2)

how

and why

some countries

of

SSA have been more suc-

cessful; and (3) how and why some countries

outside of SSA but with similar conditions

have managed to succeed in making public

goods (like health and family planning facili-

ties) more available to the rural poor. Fourth,

the

author's attempt

to link the low

popula-

tion density and high weather and other risks

of SSA (that result

in

shifting agriculture,

transhumance

and

nomadism),

with

isolation,

the dearth of institutional or technological

changes,

insufficient links to other communi-

ties, strict adherence to social convention and

over-dependence on collective institutions

for satisfying basic necessities, seems to over-

look

that these same conditions also fre-

quently breed a greater sense

of

indepen-

dence and

mobility,

increased communication

and

exchange

with

other

societies, flexibility,

and

the

ability

to

adjust to, and

be

adopted

by,

other

cultures

when needed

(thereby

al-

lowing differential skills in farming and herd-

ing to play a large role).

Fifth,

the

book gives

insufficient attention to other

more

political

determinants

of

the

lack of state

legitimacy.

Finally, in places at least, the text is not

devoid -of

tortured phrasing, long

sentences,

unnecessary repetition,

and

verbosity.

JEFFREY

B. NUGENT

University f

Southern

California

P Economic Systems

Confronting

Fiji

Futures. Edited

by

A Haroon

Akram-Lodhi.Canberra:Asia Pacific Press at

the AustralianNational

University,2000. Pp.

xv, 321. $A 30.00. ISBN 0-7315-3642-8.

JEL

2001-0359

The title of this collection

of

essays em-

phasizes the future. However,

the

great bulk

of the

book

is about the recent past, al-

though most chapters

end with a few general

comments about

the future.

The book begins with two pages entitled

Stop Press. Confronting the Present: The

Coup

of

2000.

As the book went to press

Fiji's third coup occurred

on May 19, 2000.

The fact of the coup calls into question some

of the

assumptionsand

assertions n the book.

The book is in two parts. Part

1

is entitled

Politics, Economics and Social Inequality,

although the chapters

probably contain more

about ethnicity than about any

other

topic.

After an introductory

chapter by Martin

Doornbos and the editor, Yash Ghai outlines

the 1997 constitution. Then Satendra Prasad

describes

the outcomes

and prospects of

the first election under it, that in 1999. Eco-

nomic chapters include an

overview,

by

A.

Sepehri and the editor, and one on the effect

of ethnic-based institutional rigiUities

on

eco-

nomic performance by Biman Prasad and

Sunil Kumar. Social policies

are discussed by

John Cameron, labor market deregulation by

Ganesh Chand, and the situation of urban

women (most

of

them

in

low-paid work with

poor conditions), since

the 1987 coups, by

Jacqueline

Leckie.

Part

2

is entitled The

'Fijian' Question,

an

unexpected

title for a section

on

the

nation's majority population. William

Suther-

land begins it with a chapter on The Prob-

lems

of

Reform and the 'Fijian' Question.

This

is

followed by Steven

Ratuva on affir-

mative action through business promotion

for

indigenous Fijians, which

shows that the main

beneficiaries were the already advantaged-a

not uncommon feature of affirmative action

anywhere.

Ecotourism involves

mainly indigenous

Fijians

but,

as Hoger

Korth's chapter shows,

it

accounts

for

a very

small

fragment

of

Fiji

tourism.

The

final chapter, by

Robbie

Robertson,

is

about

ethnic identities

since

the

41987

coups.

The

book

contains much valuable and

in-

teresting

information

and

opinion,

but

much

that is presented as objective

fact would

be

regarded by many among

the

indigenous

Fijian majority as highly

contested

opinion.

Also,

the similarities

of

viewpoints

in the

dif-

ferent

chapters

comes about

not

necessarily

because

everyone

in

Fiji agrees

about what

was

or

should be, but

because

this is

a

book

by people

of a

particular

persuasion.

Theirs is

an

important perspective,

but it

is

a

pity

that

no

other

perspectives

are

presented.

The

book

does

not

disclose that almost

all

the

authors

were active

supporters (in

some

cases writing policies and campaigning for)

the

government

which

was

overthrown

by

the





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