Community-based natural resource management: The role of social capital in collaborative environmental management of tribal resources in KwaZulu-Natal,South Africa

Community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) has become an important tool in promoting environmental and ecological sustainability as well as improving community access to eco-system services. However, CBNRM has been criticised as a programme that is largely driven by initiatives which are exogenous to local communities, promoting the agenda of external actors. In view of this, there is now increased attention given to CBNRM programmes that are co-management driven and which seek the participation of all community stakeholders. Using existing literature and field-based data, this article explores the role of social capital in promoting the management of common pool resources in tribal areas of KwaZulu-Natal. It is argued that social capital can be a vehicle through which the accumulation of different forms of capital can be achieved and contribute to sustainable environmental management.     

Farmer education and farm efficiency in Nepal: The role of schooling,extension services,and cognitive skills

This study uses data from Nepal to ascertain the relation between education and farmer efficiency. It finds a positive effect of education on efficiency for three major crops, but only with the recently introduced wheat crop is the effect statistically significant at standard levels. The data provide no evidence that education's effects should be attributed, even in part, to family background correlates or to a measure of ability. Among the cognitive outcomes of education, numeracy is found to affect productivity in wheat production (as well as the propensity to be growing wheat at all). Measures of farmer modernity and agricultural knowledge are not found to be correlated with farm efficiency. Calculations from the results suggest that a one-standard- deviation improvement in the numeracy test score has a present value that is high relative to the probable cost of effecting such an improvement.     

Entrepreneurs,formalization of social ties,and trustbuilding in Europe (fourteenth to twentieth centuries)1

The establishment of trust is a key component of economic activity and social ties can make business dealings work better. However, we do not know much about how economic actors created new social ties deliberately in order to pursue their objectives. This article analyses the way in which merchants and entrepreneurs used specific rituals to establish formal social ties, with the intent of protecting their business relationships. It focuses on relational instruments that until now had been neglected, particularly godparenthood and marriage witnessing. It shows that formalization, ritualization, and publicity of ties were used by entrepreneurs to establish trust with their business associates, for example when information was asymmetric or when institutions were perceived as inefficient in guaranteeing mutual good behaviour. The analysis covers a long period, from the late middle ages to today. It pays particular attention to the consequences of the Reformation in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and of the industrial revolution in the nineteenth. Contrary to the received wisdom, it suggests that formal social ties such as godparenthood continued to play an important role in economic activity during and after the industrial revolution. New databases on early modern Italy and nineteenth‐century France are used.     

The role of foreign capital in the economies of regions of Russia: Possibilities of assessments and interregional differences

The article deals with methodological approaches to assessing the role of foreign capital in regional economy. Interregional differences in the structure of organizations with foreign capital by countries are analyzed, including the scale and factors of regional differentiation by the role of the organizations with Cypriot capital. The dependence of regions on the activities of organizations with foreign capital by the indicators of employment, organizations’ turnover, and fixed capital investments have been assessed.     

The role of natural resources in trade patterns among the U.S., Japan,and other countries in the Asian Pacific Rim

The Role of Natural Resources in Trade Patterns among the US, Japan, and Other Countries in the Asian Pacific Rim. —The paper investigates the role natural resources play in shaping the trade patterns of both the US and Japan in trading with each other and with country groups in the Asian Pacific Rim. It has been argued that it is the US’s effective exploitation of natural resource endowment which was instrumental in that country’s rise to economic preeminence at the turn of this century. Given that the US relative resource abundance has diminished after the Second World War, one would expect to see the declining role of resources in American exports. Using data for 1973, 1982, and 1991, the empirical results indicate clearly that natural resources continue to play a critical role in explaining the more recent bilateral trade patterns.     

The effects of external trade,foreign resources,and domestic Policies on Domestic Savings in some developing Countries: a regression analysis

Summary This paper examines the impacts of some external and domestic factors on two measures of domestic savings (DS) in a sample of developing countries over the period 1980-82. No strong statistical evidence is found to support the hypothesis that external resources (i.e., official aid and borrowed capital) inhibit DS by substituting for them. On the other hand, favorable trade conditions (as represented by the rate of growth of the external terms of trade) are consistently found to be positively and significantly correlated with DS. These results are suggested to support the old slogan trade not aid, if it is interpreted to mean that aid should not be considered as an alternative to profitable trade opportunities.