Trading culture for development: assessing perceptions among rural agropastoral peoples in Tanzania

Development in rural parts of Africa is strongly desired by local people. Other views expressed by local people towards outside development initiatives vary considerably. Some perceptions are negative, as development recipients view development as a destructive agent of change in the local culture. Despite the negative effects associated with development, this study documented a unanimous desire among a stratified random sample of 418 respondents for more development interventions. Two villages in south-central Tanzania were selected based upon their adjacent proximity to Ruaha National Park. Findings suggest that a capability framework is useful for exploring local perceptions to outside development assistance.     

An economic model of social sensitivity: The case of individual criminal behavior

In general, economists have modeled criminal behavior as a problem in time allocation under uncertainty. Their Friedman-Savage utility models have been based on the binomial probability distribution and then tested using aggregate data on crime rates and neglect the nonpecuniary aspects of crime. This paper overcomes the shortcomings of previous work. Specifically, criminal activity is modeled with an underlying geometric probability process and explicitly accounts for the moral and social compromise involved in becoming a criminal. The empirical model enables the quantification of the criminal's moral and social sensitivity using data based on a consolidated file of police records and a cohort survey of criminals and noncriminals. On the basis of this unique data set, it is found that the included individual criminals are risk averse and that gang membership reduces social sensitivity.     

A local regulator's rewards for conformity in policy

This note is an empirical investigation of the benefits that accrue to local building departments for a regulatory policy that conforms to the relative strength of local interest groups. The study uses an interest group model and applies it to data for building departments in 1100 municipalities. It finds that material benefits in terms of budgets and salaries go to building agencies which set a strictness of regulation that reflects the balance of interest group strengths in the locality.     

The long view

He is the author of many books covering human resource allocation, conditions of health and welfare among the poor, and economic anthropologies of people ranging from blacks in the United States to the coal miners of Wales. He is recognized as a pioneer in the crossover of social problems and economic solutions.