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This book sheds new light on old problems of wealth, poverty and material culture in rural societies. Much of the debate has concentrated on north-west Europe and the Atlantic world. This volume widens the geographic range to compare less well known areas, with case studies on the Mediterranean world (Catalonia and Greece), from central Europe (Bohemia and Hungary), and from the Nordic countries (Denmark). Methodologically, several papers link the possession of goods to the use of room space, while others highlight the importance of the channels for the circulation of goods, problems of stocks and flows of goods, and the complexities of urban/rural difference. Finally, this book seeks to stimulate new comparative studies in living standards and lifestyles by providing an overview of achievements up till now. John Broad is visiting academic at the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure, University of Cambridge. He has published on rural society and poverty in England, and his current research interests include a book on English rural housing, and large-scale surveys of population, religion, and landholding in England in the eighteenth century. Anton Schuurman is associate professor of Rural History at Wageningen University. He has published on the history of material culture and rural transformations in the Netherlands. Currently he is writing a book on the processes of modernisation and democratisation in the Dutch countryside from 1840 till 1920.

This book sheds new light on old problems of wealth, poverty and material culture in rural societies. Much of the debate has concentrated on north-west Europe and the Atlantic world. This volume widens the geographic range to compare less well known areas, with case studies on the Mediterranean world (Catalonia and Greece), from central Europe (Bohemia and Hungary), and from the Nordic countries (Denmark). Methodologically, several papers link the possession of goods to the use of room space, while others highlight the importance of the channels for the circulation of goods, problems of stocks and flows of goods, and the complexities of urban/rural difference. Finally, this book seeks to stimulate new comparative studies in living standards and lifestyles by providing an overview of achievements up till now. John Broad is visiting academic at the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure, University of Cambridge. He has published on rural society and poverty in England, and his current research interests include a book on English rural housing, and large-scale surveys of population, religion, and landholding in England in the eighteenth century. Anton Schuurman is associate professor of Rural History at Wageningen University. He has published on the history of material culture and rural transformations in the Netherlands. Currently he is writing a book on the processes of modernisation and democratisation in the Dutch countryside from 1840 till 1920.

Bespreking van een onderzoek naar de economische omstandigheden en het arbeidsmarktgedrag van langdurig werklozen in Friesland

This article examines different types of diversity among farm households in Wenchi, Ghana, and their relevance and implications for orienting action research aimed at combating soil fertility decline. Previously reported research suggested that cropping systems and indigenous practices affecting soil fertility differed significantly between and among the native population and migrants. These differences were associated with prevailing land tenure arrangements. This paper refines the native/migrant classification by exploring how it is intertwined with aspects such as ethnicity, gender and wealth. The study revealed that historical, ethnic and gender dimensions of diversity provide additional insights into livelihood patterns and soil fertility management which are relevant for fine-tuning technical and social action research agendas. It is argued that relevant differences between farm households result from the interplay between structural conditions and the strategies of active agents. The implication of the study is that action research efforts to design new technology and social arrangements for addressing soil fertility decline must be re-oriented and tailored further to meet the needs and aspirations of particular sub-groups of migrants and natives. Most significantly, it appears that the feasibility of negotiating alternative land tenure arrangements differs among different groups of migrants depending on whether they regard their stay as permanent or temporal.

In a first part of this study van den Ham reacts to the increased free-market thinking and makes in chapter 1 a plea for continued efforts in active, public socio-spatial development policies in order to contribute to sustainable poverty alleviation in remote areas. This policy should aim at lifting restrictions, both material and socio-cultural, of people to realise their human capabilities to qualitatively and sustainably change the conditions of life and livelihood. It is argued why, from a development practitioner's perspective, it is important to understand the dynamics in both development thinking and doing. A research construct is introduced to explore the framework within which development paradigms, policies and practices at normative ( "what for" and " for whom?" ), strategic ( "how ") and operational ( "what, where, when, by and with whom?" ) level change over time. This change is assumed to be influenced by key-development practitioner's 'inner-guiding' individual beliefs and values, acquired academic insights and practical, learning-by-doing experiences. In practice the proposed policies seem to be very much constrained or stimulated by the development practitioner's appreciated, influenceable and controllable environment which are subject to changing power relations between the state, the corporate sector and civil society.In chapter 2 Veenstra elaborates the above research framework by highlighting the various components on the three axes depicting (1) inward-looking personal perspectives, focusing on habitual life-attitudes and roles of both indigenous and expatriate development practitioners (2) outward-looking, professional knowledge bases expanding in substantive, procedural as well as politico-institutional sense and (3) problem and action orientations as tried-out in time at various levels.In chapter 3 van den Ham reviews at a glance the origins of international development co-operation and the elements that in practice impact upon the outcome of foreign-supported, expatriate-staffed development projects; they relate to identification, organisational setting, the role of expatriate practitioners, co-operation with local counterparts, the time dimension, the role models in transfer of knowledge and "voice, loyal and exit" strategies of the practitioners.In the second part of the book seven case studies from Africa and Asia, all within the framework of international development assistance, are presented and related to the framework that has been introduced in the previous three chapters. In chapter 4 Veenstra explores his sequential experiences and struggles with emic and etic aspects in the evolving design of development programmes and practices in five projects in Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Yemen, Indonesia and Cameroon with special reference to area development planning and natural resource management. Both in sub-sections 4.6 and 6.3 Veenstra sums up his conclusions from outer and inner learning rounds in socio-spatial planning practices. In reaching after 'sustainable' livelihoods, -particularly in agrarian societies under patrimonial resource control in Sierra Leone, West Africa, of the 1960s-, strategic and operational incommensurabilities, with hindsight, cropped up as related to large-scale 'hard' infrastructure and agro-technical innovations. After actuality had completed its developmental course, shortcomings were, later on, laid open inside and between knowledge bases used, of corresponding policy instruments (not) employed, of statutory powers (not) granted and skilled personnel, budgets plus equipment (not) available. Above all, incongruity made itself manifest among stakeholders' normative outlooks holding sway at various territorial levels for prioritising their own resource claims. So it happened that in spite of 'common-good and great cause' intentions, 'kleptocratic' life styles both of rural and urban élites in a 'soft-state' setting were to be, distrustfully, endured.In the case of socialist single-party Tanzania of the 1970s 'integrated' rural development pointed toward self-reliance, poverty alleviation and fair distribution of social and physical infrastructure. These laudable aims were thwarted, however, by a over-burdened state-apparatus and the rural populace, of necessity, exiting both into 'black-market' sales of its produce and clientship-like distribution channels for local provision of its basic services,- without revenues for the state coffers. So, both the Tanzanian bureaucracy and its open-handed foreign-aid advisors made themselves not responsive and trust-worthy, - in terms of the 'good local governance' fashion of the 1990s. Under these adversary working conditions expatriate area planners were willy-nilly forced to self containment, - for instance, in our 'remote' case of the neglected Shinyanga Region. Here, a prudent step-by-step integration both in planning and eventual implementation was intended 'from overseas' through initially restricting sectoral, time/space, problem and resource development perspectives to prioritised, low-level and small-scale, concentrated area project packages. So, 'for the time being', long-haul normative policy making, including its medium-term strategic issues, were put aside; socio-spatial arithmetics were to prevail through index-number, factor-, and flow-analysis methods; thus entrapped, both expatriate and indigenous planning officers felt their 'rationalising' efforts being frustrated by short-sighted detachment in public choice situations - like ostriches bury sometimes their heads in the sand.In entering the 1980s, this neutral technocratic habitus was, -depending on politico-institutional contexts-, re-shaped towards those of mediatory brokers and advocates on behalf of beneficiary target groups. In the Rada'-case of North Yemen, 1981/82, phased social differentiation and changing leadership-styles in the long run were accounted for, but immediately shifting gears from operational towards strategic models of resource management emerged as leading theme. Here, in promoting still sustainable livelihoods, foreign development practitioners were to manoeuvre between the 'devil and the deep blue sea' of conflicting policy sets:on the one hand, in response to self-interests of national government headquarters and of private enterprise including 'progressive farmers', in favour of politico-institutional stability and free-market economic growth guided 'from above'; andon the other hand, in response to local community interests of deprived peasants and herdsmen in favour of equalisation, citizen participation and resource mobilisation 'from below', in combination with local value patterns and natural resources to be left in a well balanced order.After a decade of Rada'-development efforts, i.e. 1975-85, it was concluded that in spite (or because) of selectively applied, concentrated area project packages local village life remained principally unchanged; that at a higher level of district government implementation capacity improved through ad hoc foreign assistance; but that at the higher sub-national level of the province strategic planning and governance did not find their co-ordinating niche, neither divergent statesman-like leadership. Therefore, the two case-studies of Aceh in Indonesia, 1977-1986, and of the Tikar water catchment basin around 1990 in Cameroon, West Africa, refrained initially from formulating a e state, corporate sector and civil society was rather modest.In sub-sections 6.1 and 6.2 van den Ham concludes that the views of the key-players in the development projects can very much be traced to their previous experiences. The extent to which their views can be 'translated' into new approaches towards local area development is only to a small extent influenced by the 'power' of either the normative/inward-looking or the academic/outward-looking perspective of the concerned development practitioners. Effectuating the aspired 'real' participatory development, -implying redistribution of resources and (decision-making) power-, within the context of 'foreign' projects would for example run up against the resistance of vested interests; such an approach, whatever its desirability, can therefore not be pursued. Political room for manoeuvre turns out to be the determining factor in the normative domain. However, there is usually (limited) room at the strategic and operational levels. There it appears that the design and implementation of the advocated strategies and practices is guided by the (normative) disposition of the key players towards the essence of development and their perception of the (strategic) role of the various actors in the development process. These are fed by a commensurate cognitive outlook on reality as well as their practical experiences. Again, substantive 'objective' knowledge bases appear to play only a rather limited role in the actual formulation of programmes and practices. Hence, the foreign-funded socio-spatial development projects 'ploughed through' with limited, isolated and above all 'accidental' (because very much depending on the individual practitioner involved and very specific local conditions capacitating or constraining the potential actors) experiments.With a view towards the future van den Ham outlines in sub-section 6.4 a changing context for local development practitioners. As in sub-section 6.5 van den Ham explains, this changing context poses new challenges to, and requires new roles to be played by (teams of) future development practitioners. It is suggested that specific capabilities are required to more structurally and successfully address the socio-spatial inequalities from the local level upwards. Development practitioners should not only be technically trained in a number of skills that have traditionally been linked to the function of regional development officer. They rather should start with acquiring a thorough understanding of the dynamic way normative, strategic and operational dispositions are achieved in practice and can be influenced in an effective and legitimate way. Empathy towards other stakeholder's dispositions and potential contributions as actors in their own right, as well as self-critically reflecting on their own positioning, should development practitioners make more conscious of the link between personal or inner change, and social or outer change. This (un-)conscious reflection on implementation will contribute again to reshaping the perspectives on intended societal advancement and results in new approaches to deal with the outstanding issues.However, development practitioners should be aware that neither their own understanding of reality and their way to deal with it, nor the other stakeholder's positioning and his/her use of the results are fixed or value-neutral. These are all very much influenced by personal and professional life history, inner normative guidelines of individual beliefs as well as values, economic interests, gender, class - all very much time-, space- and context-bound possibilities and constraints. Therefore, it is for development practitioners highly important that they are capable of opening up space for public dialogue on the directions of development. They should be able to analyse the diverse options of the participants and identify the potential conflict of interest that will occur among the various stakeholders, before certain positions getting accepted as "appreciated' and translating them in (normatively) disputable strategies, projects and programmes.In addition to the 'traditional' technical skills in economics, regional science, physical geography, public administration, data management etc., communicative and analytical skills as well as abilities in the field of conflict prevention and resolution are needed to (help) translating the normative dispositions in strategic and operational terms. Next to engaging actor groups in shaping development processes, local development practitioners should also be able to facilitate reconciliation of the claims of people living in poverty with those of other contesting actor groups and to integrate them in the framework of (central) state policies. Thus, the development practitioner should facilitate that lower-level needs, aspirations and potentials meet response at the higher influenceable/strategic and appreciated/normative levels with the ultimate aim of creating an effectively enabling environment that continuously facilitates and supports people to build sustainably upon their own strengths.

In a first part of this study van den Ham reacts to the increased free-market thinking and makes in chapter 1 a plea for continued efforts in active, public socio-spatial development policies in order to contribute to sustainable poverty alleviation in remote areas. This policy should aim at lifting restrictions, both material and socio-cultural, of people to realise their human capabilities to qualitatively and sustainably change the conditions of life and livelihood. It is argued why, from a development practitioner's perspective, it is important to understand the dynamics in both development thinking and doing. A research construct is introduced to explore the framework within which development paradigms, policies and practices at normative ( "what for" and " for whom?" ), strategic ( "how ") and operational ( "what, where, when, by and with whom?" ) level change over time. This change is assumed to be influenced by key-development practitioner's 'inner-guiding' individual beliefs and values, acquired academic insights and practical, learning-by-doing experiences. In practice the proposed policies seem to be very much constrained or stimulated by the development practitioner's appreciated, influenceable and controllable environment which are subject to changing power relations between the state, the corporate sector and civil society.In chapter 2 Veenstra elaborates the above research framework by highlighting the various components on the three axes depicting (1) inward-looking personal perspectives, focusing on habitual life-attitudes and roles of both indigenous and expatriate development practitioners (2) outward-looking, professional knowledge bases expanding in substantive, procedural as well as politico-institutional sense and (3) problem and action orientations as tried-out in time at various levels.In chapter 3 van den Ham reviews at a glance the origins of international development co-operation and the elements that in practice impact upon the outcome of foreign-supported, expatriate-staffed development projects; they relate to identification, organisational setting, the role of expatriate practitioners, co-operation with local counterparts, the time dimension, the role models in transfer of knowledge and "voice, loyal and exit" strategies of the practitioners.In the second part of the book seven case studies from Africa and Asia, all within the framework of international development assistance, are presented and related to the framework that has been introduced in the previous three chapters. In chapter 4 Veenstra explores his sequential experiences and struggles with emic and etic aspects in the evolving design of development programmes and practices in five projects in Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Yemen, Indonesia and Cameroon with special reference to area development planning and natural resource management. Both in sub-sections 4.6 and 6.3 Veenstra sums up his conclusions from outer and inner learning rounds in socio-spatial planning practices. In reaching after 'sustainable' livelihoods, -particularly in agrarian societies under patrimonial resource control in Sierra Leone, West Africa, of the 1960s-, strategic and operational incommensurabilities, with hindsight, cropped up as related to large-scale 'hard' infrastructure and agro-technical innovations. After actuality had completed its developmental course, shortcomings were, later on, laid open inside and between knowledge bases used, of corresponding policy instruments (not) employed, of statutory powers (not) granted and skilled personnel, budgets plus equipment (not) available. Above all, incongruity made itself manifest among stakeholders' normative outlooks holding sway at various territorial levels for prioritising their own resource claims. So it happened that in spite of 'common-good and great cause' intentions, 'kleptocratic' life styles both of rural and urban élites in a 'soft-state' setting were to be, distrustfully, endured.In the case of socialist single-party Tanzania of the 1970s 'integrated' rural development pointed toward self-reliance, poverty alleviation and fair distribution of social and physical infrastructure. These laudable aims were thwarted, however, by a over-burdened state-apparatus and the rural populace, of necessity, exiting both into 'black-market' sales of its produce and clientship-like distribution channels for local provision of its basic services,- without revenues for the state coffers. So, both the Tanzanian bureaucracy and its open-handed foreign-aid advisors made themselves not responsive and trust-worthy, - in terms of the 'good local governance' fashion of the 1990s. Under these adversary working conditions expatriate area planners were willy-nilly forced to self containment, - for instance, in our 'remote' case of the neglected Shinyanga Region. Here, a prudent step-by-step integration both in planning and eventual implementation was intended 'from overseas' through initially restricting sectoral, time/space, problem and resource development perspectives to prioritised, low-level and small-scale, concentrated area project packages. So, 'for the time being', long-haul normative policy making, including its medium-term strategic issues, were put aside; socio-spatial arithmetics were to prevail through index-number, factor-, and flow-analysis methods; thus entrapped, both expatriate and indigenous planning officers felt their 'rationalising' efforts being frustrated by short-sighted detachment in public choice situations - like ostriches bury sometimes their heads in the sand.In entering the 1980s, this neutral technocratic habitus was, -depending on politico-institutional contexts-, re-shaped towards those of mediatory brokers and advocates on behalf of beneficiary target groups. In the Rada'-case of North Yemen, 1981/82, phased social differentiation and changing leadership-styles in the long run were accounted for, but immediately shifting gears from operational towards strategic models of resource management emerged as leading theme. Here, in promoting still sustainable livelihoods, foreign development practitioners were to manoeuvre between the 'devil and the deep blue sea' of conflicting policy sets:on the one hand, in response to self-interests of national government headquarters and of private enterprise including 'progressive farmers', in favour of politico-institutional stability and free-market economic growth guided 'from above'; andon the other hand, in response to local community interests of deprived peasants and herdsmen in favour of equalisation, citizen participation and resource mobilisation 'from below', in combination with local value patterns and natural resources to be left in a well balanced order.After a decade of Rada'-development efforts, i.e. 1975-85, it was concluded that in spite (or because) of selectively applied, concentrated area project packages local village life remained principally unchanged; that at a higher level of district government implementation capacity improved through ad hoc foreign assistance; but that at the higher sub-national level of the province strategic planning and governance did not find their co-ordinating niche, neither divergent statesman-like leadership. Therefore, the two case-studies of Aceh in Indonesia, 1977-1986, and of the Tikar water catchment basin around 1990 in Cameroon, West Africa, refrained initially from formulating a e state, corporate sector and civil society was rather modest.In sub-sections 6.1 and 6.2 van den Ham concludes that the views of the key-players in the development projects can very much be traced to their previous experiences. The extent to which their views can be 'translated' into new approaches towards local area development is only to a small extent influenced by the 'power' of either the normative/inward-looking or the academic/outward-looking perspective of the concerned development practitioners. Effectuating the aspired 'real' participatory development, -implying redistribution of resources and (decision-making) power-, within the context of 'foreign' projects would for example run up against the resistance of vested interests; such an approach, whatever its desirability, can therefore not be pursued. Political room for manoeuvre turns out to be the determining factor in the normative domain. However, there is usually (limited) room at the strategic and operational levels. There it appears that the design and implementation of the advocated strategies and practices is guided by the (normative) disposition of the key players towards the essence of development and their perception of the (strategic) role of the various actors in the development process. These are fed by a commensurate cognitive outlook on reality as well as their practical experiences. Again, substantive 'objective' knowledge bases appear to play only a rather limited role in the actual formulation of programmes and practices. Hence, the foreign-funded socio-spatial development projects 'ploughed through' with limited, isolated and above all 'accidental' (because very much depending on the individual practitioner involved and very specific local conditions capacitating or constraining the potential actors) experiments.With a view towards the future van den Ham outlines in sub-section 6.4 a changing context for local development practitioners. As in sub-section 6.5 van den Ham explains, this changing context poses new challenges to, and requires new roles to be played by (teams of) future development practitioners. It is suggested that specific capabilities are required to more structurally and successfully address the socio-spatial inequalities from the local level upwards. Development practitioners should not only be technically trained in a number of skills that have traditionally been linked to the function of regional development officer. They rather should start with acquiring a thorough understanding of the dynamic way normative, strategic and operational dispositions are achieved in practice and can be influenced in an effective and legitimate way. Empathy towards other stakeholder's dispositions and potential contributions as actors in their own right, as well as self-critically reflecting on their own positioning, should development practitioners make more conscious of the link between personal or inner change, and social or outer change. This (un-)conscious reflection on implementation will contribute again to reshaping the perspectives on intended societal advancement and results in new approaches to deal with the outstanding issues.However, development practitioners should be aware that neither their own understanding of reality and their way to deal with it, nor the other stakeholder's positioning and his/her use of the results are fixed or value-neutral. These are all very much influenced by personal and professional life history, inner normative guidelines of individual beliefs as well as values, economic interests, gender, class - all very much time-, space- and context-bound possibilities and constraints. Therefore, it is for development practitioners highly important that they are capable of opening up space for public dialogue on the directions of development. They should be able to analyse the diverse options of the participants and identify the potential conflict of interest that will occur among the various stakeholders, before certain positions getting accepted as "appreciated' and translating them in (normatively) disputable strategies, projects and programmes.In addition to the 'traditional' technical skills in economics, regional science, physical geography, public administration, data management etc., communicative and analytical skills as well as abilities in the field of conflict prevention and resolution are needed to (help) translating the normative dispositions in strategic and operational terms. Next to engaging actor groups in shaping development processes, local development practitioners should also be able to facilitate reconciliation of the claims of people living in poverty with those of other contesting actor groups and to integrate them in the framework of (central) state policies. Thus, the development practitioner should facilitate that lower-level needs, aspirations and potentials meet response at the higher influenceable/strategic and appreciated/normative levels with the ultimate aim of creating an effectively enabling environment that continuously facilitates and supports people to build sustainably upon their own strengths.

Research themeThe central theme of this thesis is the relation between irrigation development and gendered poverty alleviation in rural areas in developing countries. The focus is on the role of the irrigation sector. The sector comprises national and international governmental and non-commercial non-governmental agencies which develop irrigation infrastructure. They provide organizational, technical, and financial support to that end and participate in arranging the vesting of rights to the improved resources of irrigated land and water. The research questions concern, firstly, the effects of access by poor men and women to irrigated land and water on both poverty alleviation and productivity; secondly, inclusion and exclusion processes in irrigation; and, thirdly the role of the irrigation sector in these processes. This provides insight into the agencies' targeting of their support, and into the factors that critically contribute to vesting rights to irrigated land and water in poor men and women, and, hence, to poverty alleviation and productivity.The analysis explicitly includes rural women. They constitute the majority of the poor. Improvement of their incomes strongly contributes to family welfare and to the reduction of fertility rates. A gender-differentiated analysis requires the distinction of intra-household production units and women's and men's own resource rights.MethodThe three research questions are addressed in a review of global literature (Chapter Two, Three and Four), and in two field studies on external irrigation support for rice cultivation. The case in Burkina Faso concerns public irrigation by a state agency. The intervention is accompanied by land expropriation and reallocation. Ten subsequently constructed schemes are studied. Rice cultivation is a female cropping system in the region (Chapter Five). The subject in Bangladesh is NGO-supported private pump ownership by groups of marginal farmers and landless women and men, who use the water for irrigating their own household land and for sale. A country-wide study is made of 52 irrigation groups in which the irrigation loans are taken in women's names. They are supported by six NGOs. Irrigated rice cultivation is a male cropping system there (Chapter Six).Irrigation, poverty alleviation and productivityAccess to irrigated land and water by poor men and women generally improves their well-being (Chapter Two). Water is often a leading input for agricultural intensification, and for stabilization and growth of production during a longer period of the year. It fits the needs of farmers in increasingly smaller holdings. Water sale by smallholders and landless people provides an income, in principle. Remarking these positive effects is not to deny that lack of access to irrigated land and water is only one aspect of the state of multidimensional deprivation which poverty is. Improved access is not necessarily the most urgent need, the sufficient solution, nor the most feasible solution. It is a potential solution for only part of the world's poor. It is a sustainable solution only if the ecological resource base is conserved.The field study in Burkina Faso highlights the importance of women's own resource rights for their own well-being and for family welfare, and also for improved productivity. In Bangladesh, however, there appear to be hardly or no economic benefits from water sale for most irrigation groups. On the other hand, the non-economic status of women members of irrigation groups tends to improve, in the sense of women's self-concept and public behavior and their status within the family and the community.In many circumstances, access to irrigated land and water by the poor not only alleviates poverty but also leads to higher productivity (Chapter Two). Evidence shows that agricultural output per unit of land in smaller irrigated holdings is higher than in larger holdings. This relative higher productivity may disappear, however, if large farmers adopt large-scale mechanization; secondly, if the poor have limited access to other agricultural inputs; and, thirdly, if income diversification strategies lead the poor to take up employment far from home. There is also considerable evidence in the literature that gender by itself does not effect a farmer's production efficiency. The case studies also indicate the relatively good performance of poor producers and water sellers. In female cropping systems, like rice cultivation by most ethnic groups studied in the Burkina Faso case, women are the main producers.Evidence in the literature shows that if larger farmers obtain access to irrigated land and water, this may provide paid employment and a commercial offer of water to smallholders, and thus alleviate poverty indirectly. An increased food supply lowers the food prices. However, the effects are limited since the larger farmers largely set the terms of inclusion. The purchasing power of poor net buyers of food may still be too limited to buy the increased food supply. Poor net producers of food, on the other hand, benefit from high food prices. Moreover, access to irrigated land and water by larger farmers can also be at the direct expense of the poor. Such competition is likely to become more severe with growing water scarcity. Therefore, the irrigation sector contributes optimally to both poverty alleviation and productivity by targeting the poor and avoiding leakage of external support to the non-poor.TargetingThe contribution that the irrigation sector can make to poverty alleviation and increased productivity, given its mandate and core competence, is in vesting rights to irrigated land and water primarily in poor men and women, and redressing existing imbalances in resource rights in favor of the poor. The role of the irrigation sector in providing some users' groups with access to newly developed irrigated land and water, and excluding others, is identified in Chapters Three and Four, and empirically researched in the field studies. The type of irrigation support, the phase of a scheme, and the communication networks at the interface of agency and local people, are important variables in these inclusion and exclusion processes.The influence of the agency is especially strong in public irrigation, which is defined as irrigation in which the external agencies bear most of the costs of the infrastructure. Agencies usually have a powerful say in the physical design, and as investors their definition of their own claims and the users' claims to the water tends to be seen as legitimate. In private irrigation the water users are the main investors in the infrastructure. These private investors largely decide on the physical characteristics of the scheme and dispose of the water conveyed. The steering role of agencies is indirect and usually more limited.The definition of rights, and the role of agencies, differ according to the phase of a scheme. Usually the most important negotiations on the rights to irrigated land and water take place when infrastructure is newly constructed. Participation in these investments, either in cash or kind, are a firm basis to claim rights to the fruits in later phases, and over the generations. New construction is rare nowadays. Instead, the major redefinition of water rights occurs in irrigation management transfer and rehabilitation programs.It is an empirical question in which social fields the expropriation and reallocation of resource rights of users are negotiated under intervention, but, generally, these fields are embedded in the communication networks between local people and external agencies. Processes of inclusion and exclusion of the poor take place in these fields. If the poor are included in these networks, this network is called an 'inclusive forum'. Any new initiative of the agency, such as rehabilitation or irrigation management transfer, entails more or less substantially restructuring the local networks and redefining their competences.From the analysis of inclusion and exclusion processes in externally supported irrigation development, according to the literature and as studied in the field, it is concluded that there is considerable scope to improve the performance of the irrigation sector in vesting rights to irrigated land and water primarily in poor men and women, and in avoiding leakage. A combination of the following factors in agencies' targeting approaches appears to be pivotal.Organizational supportTargeting support is only possible if agencies work through inclusive forums at local level, composed of the priority target groups. The earlier these forums are established in an intervention process, the fewer rights become vested in the non-poor, which would hamper the later inclusion of new groups, in particular the poor. Organizational support in creating this forum is required, since poor women and men are usually not organized to that end.By now, several governmental and non-governmental irrigation agencies worldwide have succeeded in establishing such forums. These agencies have explicit and clear target group criteria, and adhere to those criteria during implementation. Culturally appropriate forms for effective participation of women in mixed-sex forums are created as well. Women are even the majority of the members of such forums in, for example, NGO-supported groups in Bangladesh.Poor people's existing organizations, and their motivation to be included in irrigation development, provide a substantive basis for these inclusive forums. In the later schemes studied in Burkina Faso, inclusive forums with women emerged even in spite of the male-biased targeting approach of the project management, which they had already implemented in earlier schemes. Such inclusion better fitted the prevailing social relations of production, for which the field staff was more receptive than the management.A rather poorly documented but important factor in excluding the poor from irrigation development appears to be the tendency of agencies themselves to confine their interactions to the decentralized branches of administrative and technical ministries, and to the local people who have most contacts with these institutions. These communication channels are dominated by the male local elite. By defining irrigation development as a matter of neutral tasks, and by failing to specify who at local level is supposed to participate and to be vested with the rights to these resources, the male elite act as a quick and effective partner in implementing these tasks. Tight implementation schedules and task-oriented reward structures for agencies' staff foster this. Within these task-oriented local networks, the elite easily claim the rights to the newly developed resources. In the early schemes studied in Burkina Faso, women lost their former land rights in this way, whereas men were endowed with rights they traditionally never had. The project's unrealistic concept of the unitary household farm represented by the male head was instrumental in this.The social fields in which rights are defined evolve over time as the social fields in which rights are implemented. In the use phase this social field is currently called a water users' organization. Membership of these organizations is closely related to having legitimate rights to irrigated land and water. Exclusion of women implicitly takes place if rights are vested in households, thought to be represented by the male head. Womens' inclusion requires the separate vesting of rights in both men and women. Poor land users with weak land rights are included as potential right holders if water rights are disconnected from land ownership. The recognition of pre-project rights, including those according to local legal systems, as a basis to vest new rights is likely to favor the poor, who, in the past, often lost their former rights without compensation.Only through inclusive forums can technical and financial support reach the poor. The types of technical and financial support, in their turn, further shape the organizational support required.Technical supportIn public irrigation, the technical support in the construction, operation and maintenance of infrastructure entails major inclusion or exclusion processes in two respects. Firstly, the site-selection, layout and division structures heavily influence whose land can be irrigated, and how well. If land tenure in the command area does not change, the physical design directly determines whether the poor or the non-poor obtain access to irrigated land. In the past, the non-poor have often been favored in this way. If land reform in the command area is possible or needed, this usually offers good opportunities to provide primarily the poor with access to irrigated land. However, these opportunities are rarely used. Land expropriation even ousted poor men and especially poor women not only in Burkina Faso but also elsewhere.Secondly, agencies in public irrigation can vest users' rights to the newly developed water, and sometimes to irrigated land as well, by arranging co-investments in construction and maintenance work in the form of labor and/or other contributions. An effective means to include the poor is explicitly opening up these opportunities to poor men and women. Timely and transparent procedures better guarantee that investments by the poor are effectively linked to rights. Poor women have often been entirely excluded from these opportunities, or their investments did not lead to rights as they did for men.In private irrigation, the poor obtain access to irrigated land and water as owners of equipment if appropriate equipment and energy sources are available. Commercial technology often does not fit these needs, or collective ownership is needed. The latter has been studied in Bangladesh. A free technology choice for optimal adaptation to local conditions, is primordial. Some NGOs develop appropriate equipment for small-scale or individual use.Financial supportInvestments in infrastructure are often the most costly part of irrigation. The poor typically lack the access to capital and to longer-term credit facilities that prosperous farmers tend to have. Hence, subsidized investments in public irrigation infrastructure should support the poor especially in obtaining access to irrigated land and water. In reality, however, these funds for irrigated land and water development have often leaked to the well-off. In private irrigation longer-term credit facilities for the poor are primordial. The study in Bangladesh shows that the poor take even substantial risks as soon as these credits are available. Therefore, sound feasibility studies and safety nets are warranted.The poorest of the poor tend to be excluded as owners of modern infrastructure, because they lack a minimal regular source of income for long-term repayment of credits. They remain largely dependent on the targeting efforts of irrigation agencies in public and private irrigation, and on the terms of inclusion set by private or semi-private owners of infrastructure, who sell the water.Order informationOrdering copies 'More jobs per drop: targeting irrigation to poor women and men' by Barbara van KoppenISBN 90 683201242Price f 49,-Via:KIT PublishersPostbus 950011090 HA AmsterdamTel. 31 20 5688406Fax31 20 5688286Email kitpress@kit.nlOr via:IT Publications103-105 Southampton RowLondon WC1B 4HHUnited KingdomTel 44 171 436 9761Fax 44 171 436 2013Or via:Eiron Inc.P.O. Box 40072Washington D.C. 20016USATel 1 202 966 3240Fax 1 202 244 0913Email Eironinc@aol.com

Research themeThe central theme of this thesis is the relation between irrigation development and gendered poverty alleviation in rural areas in developing countries. The focus is on the role of the irrigation sector. The sector comprises national and international governmental and non-commercial non-governmental agencies which develop irrigation infrastructure. They provide organizational, technical, and financial support to that end and participate in arranging the vesting of rights to the improved resources of irrigated land and water. The research questions concern, firstly, the effects of access by poor men and women to irrigated land and water on both poverty alleviation and productivity; secondly, inclusion and exclusion processes in irrigation; and, thirdly the role of the irrigation sector in these processes. This provides insight into the agencies' targeting of their support, and into the factors that critically contribute to vesting rights to irrigated land and water in poor men and women, and, hence, to poverty alleviation and productivity.The analysis explicitly includes rural women. They constitute the majority of the poor. Improvement of their incomes strongly contributes to family welfare and to the reduction of fertility rates. A gender-differentiated analysis requires the distinction of intra-household production units and women's and men's own resource rights.MethodThe three research questions are addressed in a review of global literature (Chapter Two, Three and Four), and in two field studies on external irrigation support for rice cultivation. The case in Burkina Faso concerns public irrigation by a state agency. The intervention is accompanied by land expropriation and reallocation. Ten subsequently constructed schemes are studied. Rice cultivation is a female cropping system in the region (Chapter Five). The subject in Bangladesh is NGO-supported private pump ownership by groups of marginal farmers and landless women and men, who use the water for irrigating their own household land and for sale. A country-wide study is made of 52 irrigation groups in which the irrigation loans are taken in women's names. They are supported by six NGOs. Irrigated rice cultivation is a male cropping system there (Chapter Six).Irrigation, poverty alleviation and productivityAccess to irrigated land and water by poor men and women generally improves their well-being (Chapter Two). Water is often a leading input for agricultural intensification, and for stabilization and growth of production during a longer period of the year. It fits the needs of farmers in increasingly smaller holdings. Water sale by smallholders and landless people provides an income, in principle. Remarking these positive effects is not to deny that lack of access to irrigated land and water is only one aspect of the state of multidimensional deprivation which poverty is. Improved access is not necessarily the most urgent need, the sufficient solution, nor the most feasible solution. It is a potential solution for only part of the world's poor. It is a sustainable solution only if the ecological resource base is conserved.The field study in Burkina Faso highlights the importance of women's own resource rights for their own well-being and for family welfare, and also for improved productivity. In Bangladesh, however, there appear to be hardly or no economic benefits from water sale for most irrigation groups. On the other hand, the non-economic status of women members of irrigation groups tends to improve, in the sense of women's self-concept and public behavior and their status within the family and the community.In many circumstances, access to irrigated land and water by the poor not only alleviates poverty but also leads to higher productivity (Chapter Two). Evidence shows that agricultural output per unit of land in smaller irrigated holdings is higher than in larger holdings. This relative higher productivity may disappear, however, if large farmers adopt large-scale mechanization; secondly, if the poor have limited access to other agricultural inputs; and, thirdly, if income diversification strategies lead the poor to take up employment far from home. There is also considerable evidence in the literature that gender by itself does not effect a farmer's production efficiency. The case studies also indicate the relatively good performance of poor producers and water sellers. In female cropping systems, like rice cultivation by most ethnic groups studied in the Burkina Faso case, women are the main producers.Evidence in the literature shows that if larger farmers obtain access to irrigated land and water, this may provide paid employment and a commercial offer of water to smallholders, and thus alleviate poverty indirectly. An increased food supply lowers the food prices. However, the effects are limited since the larger farmers largely set the terms of inclusion. The purchasing power of poor net buyers of food may still be too limited to buy the increased food supply. Poor net producers of food, on the other hand, benefit from high food prices. Moreover, access to irrigated land and water by larger farmers can also be at the direct expense of the poor. Such competition is likely to become more severe with growing water scarcity. Therefore, the irrigation sector contributes optimally to both poverty alleviation and productivity by targeting the poor and avoiding leakage of external support to the non-poor.TargetingThe contribution that the irrigation sector can make to poverty alleviation and increased productivity, given its mandate and core competence, is in vesting rights to irrigated land and water primarily in poor men and women, and redressing existing imbalances in resource rights in favor of the poor. The role of the irrigation sector in providing some users' groups with access to newly developed irrigated land and water, and excluding others, is identified in Chapters Three and Four, and empirically researched in the field studies. The type of irrigation support, the phase of a scheme, and the communication networks at the interface of agency and local people, are important variables in these inclusion and exclusion processes.The influence of the agency is especially strong in public irrigation, which is defined as irrigation in which the external agencies bear most of the costs of the infrastructure. Agencies usually have a powerful say in the physical design, and as investors their definition of their own claims and the users' claims to the water tends to be seen as legitimate. In private irrigation the water users are the main investors in the infrastructure. These private investors largely decide on the physical characteristics of the scheme and dispose of the water conveyed. The steering role of agencies is indirect and usually more limited.The definition of rights, and the role of agencies, differ according to the phase of a scheme. Usually the most important negotiations on the rights to irrigated land and water take place when infrastructure is newly constructed. Participation in these investments, either in cash or kind, are a firm basis to claim rights to the fruits in later phases, and over the generations. New construction is rare nowadays. Instead, the major redefinition of water rights occurs in irrigation management transfer and rehabilitation programs.It is an empirical question in which social fields the expropriation and reallocation of resource rights of users are negotiated under intervention, but, generally, these fields are embedded in the communication networks between local people and external agencies. Processes of inclusion and exclusion of the poor take place in these fields. If the poor are included in these networks, this network is called an 'inclusive forum'. Any new initiative of the agency, such as rehabilitation or irrigation management transfer, entails more or less substantially restructuring the local networks and redefining their competences.From the analysis of inclusion and exclusion processes in externally supported irrigation development, according to the literature and as studied in the field, it is concluded that there is considerable scope to improve the performance of the irrigation sector in vesting rights to irrigated land and water primarily in poor men and women, and in avoiding leakage. A combination of the following factors in agencies' targeting approaches appears to be pivotal.Organizational supportTargeting support is only possible if agencies work through inclusive forums at local level, composed of the priority target groups. The earlier these forums are established in an intervention process, the fewer rights become vested in the non-poor, which would hamper the later inclusion of new groups, in particular the poor. Organizational support in creating this forum is required, since poor women and men are usually not organized to that end.By now, several governmental and non-governmental irrigation agencies worldwide have succeeded in establishing such forums. These agencies have explicit and clear target group criteria, and adhere to those criteria during implementation. Culturally appropriate forms for effective participation of women in mixed-sex forums are created as well. Women are even the majority of the members of such forums in, for example, NGO-supported groups in Bangladesh.Poor people's existing organizations, and their motivation to be included in irrigation development, provide a substantive basis for these inclusive forums. In the later schemes studied in Burkina Faso, inclusive forums with women emerged even in spite of the male-biased targeting approach of the project management, which they had already implemented in earlier schemes. Such inclusion better fitted the prevailing social relations of production, for which the field staff was more receptive than the management.A rather poorly documented but important factor in excluding the poor from irrigation development appears to be the tendency of agencies themselves to confine their interactions to the decentralized branches of administrative and technical ministries, and to the local people who have most contacts with these institutions. These communication channels are dominated by the male local elite. By defining irrigation development as a matter of neutral tasks, and by failing to specify who at local level is supposed to participate and to be vested with the rights to these resources, the male elite act as a quick and effective partner in implementing these tasks. Tight implementation schedules and task-oriented reward structures for agencies' staff foster this. Within these task-oriented local networks, the elite easily claim the rights to the newly developed resources. In the early schemes studied in Burkina Faso, women lost their former land rights in this way, whereas men were endowed with rights they traditionally never had. The project's unrealistic concept of the unitary household farm represented by the male head was instrumental in this.The social fields in which rights are defined evolve over time as the social fields in which rights are implemented. In the use phase this social field is currently called a water users' organization. Membership of these organizations is closely related to having legitimate rights to irrigated land and water. Exclusion of women implicitly takes place if rights are vested in households, thought to be represented by the male head. Womens' inclusion requires the separate vesting of rights in both men and women. Poor land users with weak land rights are included as potential right holders if water rights are disconnected from land ownership. The recognition of pre-project rights, including those according to local legal systems, as a basis to vest new rights is likely to favor the poor, who, in the past, often lost their former rights without compensation.Only through inclusive forums can technical and financial support reach the poor. The types of technical and financial support, in their turn, further shape the organizational support required.Technical supportIn public irrigation, the technical support in the construction, operation and maintenance of infrastructure entails major inclusion or exclusion processes in two respects. Firstly, the site-selection, layout and division structures heavily influence whose land can be irrigated, and how well. If land tenure in the command area does not change, the physical design directly determines whether the poor or the non-poor obtain access to irrigated land. In the past, the non-poor have often been favored in this way. If land reform in the command area is possible or needed, this usually offers good opportunities to provide primarily the poor with access to irrigated land. However, these opportunities are rarely used. Land expropriation even ousted poor men and especially poor women not only in Burkina Faso but also elsewhere.Secondly, agencies in public irrigation can vest users' rights to the newly developed water, and sometimes to irrigated land as well, by arranging co-investments in construction and maintenance work in the form of labor and/or other contributions. An effective means to include the poor is explicitly opening up these opportunities to poor men and women. Timely and transparent procedures better guarantee that investments by the poor are effectively linked to rights. Poor women have often been entirely excluded from these opportunities, or their investments did not lead to rights as they did for men.In private irrigation, the poor obtain access to irrigated land and water as owners of equipment if appropriate equipment and energy sources are available. Commercial technology often does not fit these needs, or collective ownership is needed. The latter has been studied in Bangladesh. A free technology choice for optimal adaptation to local conditions, is primordial. Some NGOs develop appropriate equipment for small-scale or individual use.Financial supportInvestments in infrastructure are often the most costly part of irrigation. The poor typically lack the access to capital and to longer-term credit facilities that prosperous farmers tend to have. Hence, subsidized investments in public irrigation infrastructure should support the poor especially in obtaining access to irrigated land and water. In reality, however, these funds for irrigated land and water development have often leaked to the well-off. In private irrigation longer-term credit facilities for the poor are primordial. The study in Bangladesh shows that the poor take even substantial risks as soon as these credits are available. Therefore, sound feasibility studies and safety nets are warranted.The poorest of the poor tend to be excluded as owners of modern infrastructure, because they lack a minimal regular source of income for long-term repayment of credits. They remain largely dependent on the targeting efforts of irrigation agencies in public and private irrigation, and on the terms of inclusion set by private or semi-private owners of infrastructure, who sell the water.Order informationOrdering copies 'More jobs per drop: targeting irrigation to poor women and men' by Barbara van KoppenISBN 90 683201242Price f 49,-Via:KIT PublishersPostbus 950011090 HA AmsterdamTel. 31 20 5688406Fax31 20 5688286Email kitpress@kit.nlOr via:IT Publications103-105 Southampton RowLondon WC1B 4HHUnited KingdomTel 44 171 436 9761Fax 44 171 436 2013Or via:Eiron Inc.P.O. Box 40072Washington D.C. 20016USATel 1 202 966 3240Fax 1 202 244 0913Email Eironinc@aol.com

An individual's well-being (also referred to as welfare or utility) is intimately linked to the extent to which the desires and wishes of that individual are fulfilled, and pain and distress avoided. These desires can relate to various aspects of daily life. Some pertain to economics, others are more sociological in nature. The economic aspect that has received the most attention is income. In this respect income has a very broad meaning: command over commodities. It covers elements such as income distribution, wealth and its distribution, poverty, etc. Closely related to income and income distribution is the division of time between labour and leisure (in some instances also time spent in the household). To a large extent the distribution of time between labour (paid time) and leisure (unpaid time) determines the amount of income an individual can earn, In addition, the choice of a particular job (at least if one has the option of choosing) also has implications regarding the amount of income. Some aspects of life usually considered as belonging to the field of sociology such as health, education, safety, social relations and feelings of fear, have nonetheless received an increasing interest of economists (Becker, 1965; Rosen, 1986).This research concerns income and labour in agriculture. Literature on agricultural economics devides income research into three general categories:-income formation and income distribution in agriculture-comparison of incomes earned inside and outside agriculture - research on the incidence of poverty in rural areas.Research on labour is mainly concerned with:-the quality of jobs: working conditions, education, on-the job-training, etc.-the amount of work done: for example, how many hours a day does a farmer work.In this study a special kind of utility function (Van Praag, 1968) is used to describe farm families' preferences with respect to income and labour. This socalled individual welfare function is a cardinally measurable utility function. This function was originally derived as a lognormal distribution function. Up to now most applications of this special utility function have been aimed at deriving the welfare function of income.The univariate lognormal distribution function is determined by two parameters, μand σ. In order to measure the welfare function of income, that is, to estimate the parameters μand σthe 'Income Evaluation Question' was developed. Under the assumption that utility can be measured directly, respondents to surveys have to specify the amounts of income they associate with verbal qualifications such as 'very bad', 'bad', etc. The parameters of the welfare function can be estimated using those evaluations, making some special assumption about the way those surveyed provide these evaluations (the so-called 'equal interval' assumption). Differences in estimated parameter values can be explained by the differences in economic and demographic background among the people being surveyed.The welfare function of labour is measured in a way that is analogous to the welfare function of income. In the labour evaluation, respondents express their feelings about two different, yet related aspects of labour. First, working on the farm provides 'psychic income' for the workers involved. Therefore, to a certain extent, labour will be evaluated positively. Second, the provision of labour reduces the amount of leisure time available. This aspect of labour provision is evaluated negatively. According to the theory of the welfare function, the evaluation of both aspects of labour can be approximated by a bivariate lognormal distribution function (Van Praag, 1968; Van de Stadt, 1983). The four parameters of this specification are measured similarly to the welfare function of income. Survey respondents are asked to answer the 'Labour Evaluation Question', which indicates a range of hypothetical working hours. The respondent is supposed to give a (numerical) evaluation for the various working hours relevant to him or her. As the bivariate lognormal distribution function is rather demanding as far as the number of parameters to be estimated is concerned, additional specifications such as a gamma and a beta specification were also estimated. Just as with the welfare function of income, differences in parameters can partly be attributed to differences in the respondents' economic and demographic circumstances.Both the welfare function of income and that of labour should be considered partial welfare functions. When evaluating working hours, income is assumed to be constant, whereas the amount of working hours is constant when evaluating different amounts of income. According to the theory of the welfare function, the simultaneous evaluation of income and labour should be specified as the product of the partial welfare functions (at least whenever the aspects evaluated, in this case income and labour, are independent). It will probably be very difficult for a respondent to evaluate an amount of income that is very high (or very low), compared with that respondent's usual income, without (even if implicitly) changing the amount of labour involved. The same is true when evaluating labour. Respondents might relate different amounts of working time to changes in income. This means that any simultaneous evaluation of income and labour based on such partial evaluations can only be valid when conducted within the scope of respondents' own actual labourlincome combinations. In addition to the (theoretically correct) specification as a product of partial welfare functions, the simultaneous evaluation of income and labour has also been specified as the (convex) weighted sum of the partial evaluations.The parameters of the welfare function are estimated using survey results. The answers to the specific evaluation questions (the 'Income Evaluation Question' and the 'Labour Evaluation Question') are particularly relevant in the estimation procedure. For the purpose of estimating the welfare function of farm families in the Netherlands, a small sample of farmers (arable, dairy, intensivelivestock, and others) was chosen from among the Dutch farm population. In addition to answering the evaluation questions, respondents were also requested to provide information about the technical characteristics of their farms and the demographic characteristics of their farm families. Contrary to most previous applications, the evaluation questions were put to both the farmers and their wifes (if present). Although the sample used is certainly not a perfect reflection of the Dutch farm population, the farms selected seem to have provided a reasonable picture of farm type subgroups within the population.As far as the preferences regarding income are concerned, the results broadly correspond to those for the Dutch population. (For results concerning the population at large, see, e.g. Kapteyn, 1977). It generally takes a higher income to satisfy a farmer than it does to satisfy his spouse. This fact has been explained in Kapteyn et al., 1986.Past incomes do affect perceived satisfaction with certain amounts of income in the present. This is the so-called 'preference drift'. Because of the highly fluctuating incomes of farmers, this effect is less pronounced for the farm population than for the average Dutch citizen. Using some kind of permanent income measure that fluctuates less than actual farm incomes, substantially reduces the differences between farmers and nonfarmers.The number of persons in a family can be considered an indication of the costs involved in feeding and clothing the family. Although family size does have a comparable effect on the farmer's income preferences, as in studies covering the Dutch population, family size has a much greater effect on the preferences of the farmer's wife. This is due to the fact that previous research only addressed the income evaluation question to the head of the family, in most cases a man.The welfare function of income can be used to calculate parity incomes for different groups of farmers. Group A earns a parity income compared with group B when both groups are equally satisfied with their incomes. Based upon the (small) sample, intensive-livestock farmers seem to be the most satisfied with their incomes, whereas arable farmers are the least satisfied. In general, farmers seem to be less satisfied with their incomes than the average Dutch citizen. It should be kept in mind however, that this observation is related to the period of the survey. In different circumstances the comparison result could very well be reversed.The evaluation of labour is not monotonically decreasing in time, as is almost always assumed in neoclassical economics. If only a small number of hours is worked on the farm, the perceived sense of well-being increases. If the amount of labour exceeds a certain number of hours, perceived welfare decreases. The increase in perceived welfare is the result of 'psychic income' derived by farmers working their farms. The welfare perception eventually starts decreasing as the amount of leisure time is reduced due to increasing labour time. Various specifications of the welfare function of labour have been estimated. The lognormal specification fit the data best.As with the parameters of the welfare function of income, habit formation determines to some degree the estimated values of the parameters of the welfare function of labour.The combination of the welfare function of income and the welfare function of labour results in the welfare function of income and labour. If both partial evaluations are independent, then the combined welfare function is the product of the partial welfare functions. The cardinality of the welfare function makes it possible to determine the unique welfare levels of the indifference curves.The shape of the indifference curves is different than in the neoclassical case because of the 'psychic income' derived from working, whether it is on the farm or elsewhere.The amount of income needed to persuade a farmer to work an extra hour (the so- called marginal rate of transformation) can be calculated from the estimated welfare function of income and labour. The interpretation of the calculated values is rather difficult. Compared with the values in other research (based on neoclassical assumptions), the calculated rates of transformation based on the welfare- function are very high.Given that farmers would have the same preferences regarding on-farm and off-farm labour, calculations based on neoclassical assumptions show that the on-farm amount of labour for individual farmers is not compatible with utilitymaximizing behaviour. Because farmers are working too many hours, their wage rate, measured by the value of the marginal product, is low. Nonfarming wage rates in 'comparable' jobs are higher. Here farmers could earn a higher income with presumably less labour. One reason why farmers do not leave agriculture is that in the above comparison an incorrect value for the opportunity cost of farm labour is used in calculating off-farm income opportunities. Nonagricultural wage rates for current farmers would be even lower than their agricultural wage rates. There is also the chance that the right kind of jobs (part-time, close to the farm) are not available. Another explanation is that the income measure is too restricted. In addition to providing money, farming also supplies other kinds of income (e.g. housing, home- grown goods, etc.). From this point of view, farmers' incomes would not be (relatively) low as long as all components were adequately assessed. Another explanation takes preferences towards labour into account. It could be that farmers have such preferences (with respect to farm labour), that they are satisfied with a relatively low reward.The results based on the welfare function of income do not confirm explanations concerning income, as such. Farmers are less satisfied with their money income than workers outside agriculture. Obviously non-money income does not fully compensate for the low money reward. When preferences regarding labour and income are simultaneously taken into account, in order to justify an additional hour of work, the wage rate should be substantially higher than the marginal wage rate calculated in previous (neoclassical) research. So, even when preferences towards farm labour are taken into account, it is still impossible to explain the low wage rates in agriculture.The high values for farmers' transformation rates, based on their preferences regarding income and labour, do not fit with the incidence of low agricultural wage rates. One explanation could be that the welfare function should contain other arguments besides income and labour. Or perhaps attention should be paid to nonagricultural circumstances in order to discover why farmers are so reluctant to leave agriculture. Despite the fact that circumstances in agriculture do not concur with farmers' preferences, farmers seem to be trapped in agriculture without any opportunities for leaving and taking a job elsewhere. This inquiry into the preferences of farm families cannot, by itself, provide the ultimate answer to the question of why farmers remain farmers.

In this book, a model of long-term interrelationships between income distribution, population growth and economic development is developed and estimated from data for 54 countries. The results indicate that a reduction of income inequality leads to lower fertility and mortality, to improvedbasic needs satisfaction, and to lower labour force participation of young and old males and of females in Asia and Africa. The effect of income distribution on saving and consumption is found to be negligible. These outcomes suggest that family planning and health policies in LDCs will show better results when they are supplemented with policies aimed at makingthe poor benefit from economic growth. As regards development policy, the results indicate that a reduction of income inequality does not impair the formation of physical capital, but enhances the formation of human capital and lowers the growth rate of the labour force. Published version of EUI PhD thesis, 1991

Bespreking van een onderzoek naar de economische omstandigheden en het arbeidsmarktgedrag van langdurig werklozen in Friesland

Beschouwing over armoede in relatie tot huishoudelijk handelen

Inleiding over inkomen, vermogensvorming en reserveringen in verschillende takken van de Nederlandse landbouw en verschillende ondernemingssituaties: bedrijven die naar continuiteit streven (jonge boeren, bedrijven met opvolgers) en bedrijven met oudere boeren zonder opvolgers

Dit boek is geschreven voor hen die op enigerlei wijze betrokken zijn bij de voorbereiding, evaluatie en uitvoering van projecten. Aangezien deze groep vele personen telt die niet economisch gevormd zijn, worden de meeste onderwerpen van de projectbeoordelingstheorie tamelijk uitvoerig in dit boek behandeld. Tevens is geprobeerd de theorie tot een afgerond geheel op te bouwen. De reden voor het schrijven van dit boek is dat de behandeling van inkomenseffecten in de projectevaluatie naar de mening van de schrijver nog veel te wensen over laat. Na een discussie in het eerste deel van de traditionele batenkosten analyse, welke als de economische evaluatie van projecten wordt gekenschetst, wordt daarom in het tweede deel uitvoerig stil gestaan bij de sociale bcoordeling van projecten, d.w.z. de evaluatie die ook de inkomensverdelingseffecten van projecten in aarimerking neemt.De Engelse samenvatting volgt het schema van het boek op de voet. Voor de Nederlandse samenvatting is het daarom rneer interessant in het kort aan te duiden welke aspecten deze studie een eigen karakter geven. Wat betreft het eerste deel is dit allereerst de aandacht die wordt besteed aan niet-optimale situaties. Zij, die voor de baten-kosten analyse van projecten aansluiting zoeken bij de welvaartseconornie en het leerschema der volledige mededinging zullen deze niet behandeld vinden; zij, die aannemen dat de wereld gekenmerkt is door distorsies en door zulk een veelheid van structurele relaties, dat gedetailleerde programmering veelal niet mogelijk is, zijn nader tot de gedachtenwereld van de schrijver. Deze zienswijze leidt ertoe dat, indien inkomensverdelingsaspecten niet belangrijk zijn, het 'wat heeft men er voor over' ofwel het zogenaamde 'willingness to pay' principe wordt aanvaard voor de bepaling van de baten en het alternatieve kosten beginsel voor de bepaling van de kosten van een project. Verder heeft.dit grondmotief als gevolg, dat wordt gekozen voor het gebruik van binnenlandse prijzen in plaats van, zoals tegenwoordig vaak wordt voorgestaan, wereldprijzen. Een tweede leiddraad is dat projecten niet in isolatie mogen worden bekeken; de beperkte middelen maken een keuze uit de veelheid van mogelijke projecten noodzakelijk. Veel aandacht wordt daarom besteed aan het rangschikken van projecten. Een derde punt is dat, ofschoon het eerste deel theoretisch van aard is, steeds wordt getracht de problemen op een practische rnanier te benaderen. Voor de berekening van de schaduwprijzen van inputs, vreemde valuta, arbeid en kapitaal worden daarom vereenvoudigende benaderingsformules voorgesteld. Ook komt deze practische aanpak tot uitdrukking in de behandeling van situaties van kapitaalschaarste, externe effecten, en de evaluatie van projecten in tijden van depressle. Tenslotte moge worden vermeld, dat in het eerste deel uitvoerig wordt ingegaan op het gebruik van buitenlandse arbeid en kapitaal, waarbij ook de kapitaaloverdracht door internationale organisaties zoals de Wereldbank ter sprake komt.Het tweede deel wijkt in belangrijke mate af van de bestaandeliteratuur. Allereerst wordt uiteengezet, dat het compensatiebeginsel - en daarmede de traditionele analyse - moet worden verworpen, indien de inkomensverdeling wordt beïnvloed door een project. De enige methode om de sociale prioriteit van een project in zulk een geval te beoordelen, is door te meten in hoeverre een meer optimale inkomensverdeling bereikt wordt en daarmede een toeneming van de collectieve welvaart. In dit opzicht wordt vaak een onderscheid gemaakt tussen de inkornensverdeling tussen generaties en de inkomensverdeling tussen personen in de bestaande generatie. Uitvoerig wordt in de studie ingegaan op de nieuwe literatuur betreffende de sociale disconteringsvoet, welke postuleert dat indien het niveau van de investeringen in een land niet optimaal is een speciaal investeringsalgorithme moet worden gevolgd om het inkomen van de volgende generaties te vergroten. De analyse in de studie maakt het echter duidelijk dat het hechten van gewichten aan investeringen, waardoor onder deze berekeningswijze investeringen waardevoller worden gemaakt dan consumptie, in wezen zeer discriminatoir is en tot een sterke benadeling van de midden inkomensgroep kan leiden. Aangezien de overheid in de praktijk gewoonlijk verschillende andere meer efficiënte instrumenten, b.v. de invoer-, fiscale- en monetaire politiek, tot haar beschikking heeft, moet dit systeem van projectevaluatie meestal worden verworpen. Verder wordt besproken dat het doel van het Overheidsingrijpen niet moet worden gezien als het streven naar groei van het nationale inkomen, maar als het streven naar een billijke groei van de inkoniens van de verschillende inkomensgroepen in de volkshuishouding. In wezen is daarom de intertemporale analyse dezelfde als de interpersonele analyse.Wat betreft de interpersonele kant van de baten-kosten analyse gaat de nieuwe literatuur er in het algemeen van uit dat investeringsprojecten moeten helpen de bestaande inkomensverdeling te verbeteren. Het is echter niet juist om, zoals deze nieuwe literatuur voorstelt, de sociale waarden van inkornensveranderingen tengevolge van een project af te leiden van een afnemende grensnut functie van het inkomen. Zoals wordt uiteengezet houdt zulk een procedure in dat een ieder in de maatschappij hetzelfde inkomen zou mocten hebben, en dat is iets dat door geen enkel land, hetzij op politieke dan wel op practische gronden, wordt aanvaard. Het is echter wel algemeen aanvaard dat een inkomensvermeerdering van de allerarmsten of allerrijksten respectievelijk zwaarder en lichter moet wegen dan een verandering in de inkomens van de middengroep. Voor de sociale evaluatie van projecten stelt deze studie daarom voor dat gebruik wordt gemaakt van een sociale welvaartsfunctie welke aanneemt dat voor de midden inkomensgroep de inkomensverdeling als optimaal mag worden beschouwd en dat wat betreft de uiteinden van de inkomensschaal de onlangs ook door Tinbergen en Chenery aanbevolen Bernouilli functie kan worden aanvaard.De op deze manier te bepalen sociale rentabiliteit van een project mag echter niet als de enige maatstaf voor het wel of niet accepteren van het project dienen. Efficiency overwegingen spelen immers altijd een rol en dit betekent dat te allen tijde de verschillende methoden waarop de inkomensverdeling kan worden verbeterd tegen elkaar moeten worden afgewogen. In principe is het daarom onjuist een project met een lage economische rentabiliteit maar met een hoge sociale rentabiliteit zonder rneer te accepteren. Met andere woorden, het geld mag niet over de balk worden gegooid.In het laatste hoofdstuk wordt aan de hand van een aantal voorbeelden uiteengezet hoe de sociale evaluatie van projecten in de practijk moet worden uitgevoerd. Deze voorbeelden betreffen een hypothetisch project en een aantal actuele projecten gericht op landontwikkeling, irrigatie, mechanische ontginning en het gebruik van landbouwtractoren. Bovendien wordt voor een bepaald land (Maleisië) besproken hoe de sociale ontwikkelingsstrategie moet worden ontworpen voor een bepaalde sector (de landbouwsector). Het blijkt dat indien sociale overwegingen in aarimerking worden genomen belangrijke veranderingen in de traditionele strategie moeten worden aangebracht.Het ene na het andere land ondergaat tegenwoordig politieke en sociale onrust en het lijdt geen twijfel dat ter verkrijging van sociale, stabiliteit niet alleen de groei van het nationale inkornen van een land moet worden nagestreefd, maar ook de groei van het inkomen van de laagste inkomensklassen. In de opinie van de schrijver kan de sociale evaluatie van projecten een belangriike bijdrage leveren tot het bevorderen van de sociale stabiliteit van een land.

Dit boek is geschreven voor hen die op enigerlei wijze betrokken zijn bij de voorbereiding, evaluatie en uitvoering van projecten. Aangezien deze groep vele personen telt die niet economisch gevormd zijn, worden de meeste onderwerpen van de projectbeoordelingstheorie tamelijk uitvoerig in dit boek behandeld. Tevens is geprobeerd de theorie tot een afgerond geheel op te bouwen. De reden voor het schrijven van dit boek is dat de behandeling van inkomenseffecten in de projectevaluatie naar de mening van de schrijver nog veel te wensen over laat. Na een discussie in het eerste deel van de traditionele batenkosten analyse, welke als de economische evaluatie van projecten wordt gekenschetst, wordt daarom in het tweede deel uitvoerig stil gestaan bij de sociale bcoordeling van projecten, d.w.z. de evaluatie die ook de inkomensverdelingseffecten van projecten in aarimerking neemt.De Engelse samenvatting volgt het schema van het boek op de voet. Voor de Nederlandse samenvatting is het daarom rneer interessant in het kort aan te duiden welke aspecten deze studie een eigen karakter geven. Wat betreft het eerste deel is dit allereerst de aandacht die wordt besteed aan niet-optimale situaties. Zij, die voor de baten-kosten analyse van projecten aansluiting zoeken bij de welvaartseconornie en het leerschema der volledige mededinging zullen deze niet behandeld vinden; zij, die aannemen dat de wereld gekenmerkt is door distorsies en door zulk een veelheid van structurele relaties, dat gedetailleerde programmering veelal niet mogelijk is, zijn nader tot de gedachtenwereld van de schrijver. Deze zienswijze leidt ertoe dat, indien inkomensverdelingsaspecten niet belangrijk zijn, het 'wat heeft men er voor over' ofwel het zogenaamde 'willingness to pay' principe wordt aanvaard voor de bepaling van de baten en het alternatieve kosten beginsel voor de bepaling van de kosten van een project. Verder heeft.dit grondmotief als gevolg, dat wordt gekozen voor het gebruik van binnenlandse prijzen in plaats van, zoals tegenwoordig vaak wordt voorgestaan, wereldprijzen. Een tweede leiddraad is dat projecten niet in isolatie mogen worden bekeken; de beperkte middelen maken een keuze uit de veelheid van mogelijke projecten noodzakelijk. Veel aandacht wordt daarom besteed aan het rangschikken van projecten. Een derde punt is dat, ofschoon het eerste deel theoretisch van aard is, steeds wordt getracht de problemen op een practische rnanier te benaderen. Voor de berekening van de schaduwprijzen van inputs, vreemde valuta, arbeid en kapitaal worden daarom vereenvoudigende benaderingsformules voorgesteld. Ook komt deze practische aanpak tot uitdrukking in de behandeling van situaties van kapitaalschaarste, externe effecten, en de evaluatie van projecten in tijden van depressle. Tenslotte moge worden vermeld, dat in het eerste deel uitvoerig wordt ingegaan op het gebruik van buitenlandse arbeid en kapitaal, waarbij ook de kapitaaloverdracht door internationale organisaties zoals de Wereldbank ter sprake komt.Het tweede deel wijkt in belangrijke mate af van de bestaandeliteratuur. Allereerst wordt uiteengezet, dat het compensatiebeginsel - en daarmede de traditionele analyse - moet worden verworpen, indien de inkomensverdeling wordt beïnvloed door een project. De enige methode om de sociale prioriteit van een project in zulk een geval te beoordelen, is door te meten in hoeverre een meer optimale inkomensverdeling bereikt wordt en daarmede een toeneming van de collectieve welvaart. In dit opzicht wordt vaak een onderscheid gemaakt tussen de inkornensverdeling tussen generaties en de inkomensverdeling tussen personen in de bestaande generatie. Uitvoerig wordt in de studie ingegaan op de nieuwe literatuur betreffende de sociale disconteringsvoet, welke postuleert dat indien het niveau van de investeringen in een land niet optimaal is een speciaal investeringsalgorithme moet worden gevolgd om het inkomen van de volgende generaties te vergroten. De analyse in de studie maakt het echter duidelijk dat het hechten van gewichten aan investeringen, waardoor onder deze berekeningswijze investeringen waardevoller worden gemaakt dan consumptie, in wezen zeer discriminatoir is en tot een sterke benadeling van de midden inkomensgroep kan leiden. Aangezien de overheid in de praktijk gewoonlijk verschillende andere meer efficiënte instrumenten, b.v. de invoer-, fiscale- en monetaire politiek, tot haar beschikking heeft, moet dit systeem van projectevaluatie meestal worden verworpen. Verder wordt besproken dat het doel van het Overheidsingrijpen niet moet worden gezien als het streven naar groei van het nationale inkomen, maar als het streven naar een billijke groei van de inkoniens van de verschillende inkomensgroepen in de volkshuishouding. In wezen is daarom de intertemporale analyse dezelfde als de interpersonele analyse.Wat betreft de interpersonele kant van de baten-kosten analyse gaat de nieuwe literatuur er in het algemeen van uit dat investeringsprojecten moeten helpen de bestaande inkomensverdeling te verbeteren. Het is echter niet juist om, zoals deze nieuwe literatuur voorstelt, de sociale waarden van inkornensveranderingen tengevolge van een project af te leiden van een afnemende grensnut functie van het inkomen. Zoals wordt uiteengezet houdt zulk een procedure in dat een ieder in de maatschappij hetzelfde inkomen zou mocten hebben, en dat is iets dat door geen enkel land, hetzij op politieke dan wel op practische gronden, wordt aanvaard. Het is echter wel algemeen aanvaard dat een inkomensvermeerdering van de allerarmsten of allerrijksten respectievelijk zwaarder en lichter moet wegen dan een verandering in de inkomens van de middengroep. Voor de sociale evaluatie van projecten stelt deze studie daarom voor dat gebruik wordt gemaakt van een sociale welvaartsfunctie welke aanneemt dat voor de midden inkomensgroep de inkomensverdeling als optimaal mag worden beschouwd en dat wat betreft de uiteinden van de inkomensschaal de onlangs ook door Tinbergen en Chenery aanbevolen Bernouilli functie kan worden aanvaard.De op deze manier te bepalen sociale rentabiliteit van een project mag echter niet als de enige maatstaf voor het wel of niet accepteren van het project dienen. Efficiency overwegingen spelen immers altijd een rol en dit betekent dat te allen tijde de verschillende methoden waarop de inkomensverdeling kan worden verbeterd tegen elkaar moeten worden afgewogen. In principe is het daarom onjuist een project met een lage economische rentabiliteit maar met een hoge sociale rentabiliteit zonder rneer te accepteren. Met andere woorden, het geld mag niet over de balk worden gegooid.In het laatste hoofdstuk wordt aan de hand van een aantal voorbeelden uiteengezet hoe de sociale evaluatie van projecten in de practijk moet worden uitgevoerd. Deze voorbeelden betreffen een hypothetisch project en een aantal actuele projecten gericht op landontwikkeling, irrigatie, mechanische ontginning en het gebruik van landbouwtractoren. Bovendien wordt voor een bepaald land (Maleisië) besproken hoe de sociale ontwikkelingsstrategie moet worden ontworpen voor een bepaalde sector (de landbouwsector). Het blijkt dat indien sociale overwegingen in aarimerking worden genomen belangrijke veranderingen in de traditionele strategie moeten worden aangebracht.Het ene na het andere land ondergaat tegenwoordig politieke en sociale onrust en het lijdt geen twijfel dat ter verkrijging van sociale, stabiliteit niet alleen de groei van het nationale inkornen van een land moet worden nagestreefd, maar ook de groei van het inkomen van de laagste inkomensklassen. In de opinie van de schrijver kan de sociale evaluatie van projecten een belangriike bijdrage leveren tot het bevorderen van de sociale stabiliteit van een land.