Farmers and Middlemen in a Transmigration Area in Indonesia 1

Compared with long-settled lava, transmigration areas in the outer islands of Indonesia are characterised by an underdeveloped transportation and communication infrastructure that makes farmers' access to markets relatively difficult. In this case study, however, no significant difference was found in either marketing margins or middleman profits between a transmigration area in Sumatra and a long-settled area m West Java. High risk and transaction costs, associated with long-distance trade under poor infrastructure, together with delays in the issue of formal land titles to transmigrant settlers, operate as entry barriers to marketing activities. These negative factors in the transmigation area are largely compensated for by the larger marketable agricultural surplus per farm, which has the effect of reducing transportation and transaction costs.     

Norms and Rationality in the Evolution of Economic Systems: A View from Asian Villages

The evolution of economic systems is viewed as a process in which various informal arrangements are experimented with for improving efficiency under changed economic environments, some of which may survive and become established as new social norms. The process is illustrated by a micro case study of Philippine villages. It reveals the ability of peasants subsisting on small farms to resolve a major disequilibrium between labour's marginal productivity and the wage rate resulting from the intro duction of modern rice technology, by creating, on the basis of their traditional experience, an appropriate institution consistent with their cultural norm. Concurrently, large estate farms were seen to arrive at an inferior outcome because of their inability to utilize the peasant community's norm, thereby demonstrating the existence of multiple equilibria
JEL Classification Numbers: D23, O17, P51     

Book Reviews

Howard Dick, The Indonesian Interisland Shipping Industry: An Analysis of Competition and Regulation, Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1987, pp. 217. Paper: US$15.00; Cloth: US$23.00.

Anne Booth, Agricultural Development in Indonesia, Sydney, Wellington and London: Allen and Unwin, 1988, pp. 295 + iv.

Arthur van Schaik, Colonial Control and Peasant Resources in Java, Amsterdam; University of Amsterdam, Institute For Social Geography, 1986, pp. 210.

Joan Hardjono, Land, Labour and Livelihood in a West Java Village, Jogyakarta: Gadjah Mada University Press, 1987.

W. Röll and A. Leemann, Agrarprobleme auf Lombok: Untersuchungen zur Wirtschafts- und Sozialstruktur in Nusa Tenggara Barat, Indonesien (Agricultural Problems on Lombok: Studies of Economic and Social Structure in West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia), Hamburg: Institut Für Asienkunde, 1987, pp. 300.

Hal Hill (ed.), Unity and Diversity: Regional Economic Development in Indonesia Since 1970, Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1989, pp. 610 + xxx. Cloth: A$65.00.

C. P. Timmer (ed.). The Corn Economy of Indonesia, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987, pp. 302. Cloth: US$32.95.

Thee Kian Wie, Industrialisasi Indonesia: Analisa dan Catalan Kritis (Indonesian Industrialisation: Analysis and Critical Notes), Jakarta: Pustaka Sinar Harapan, 1988, pp. 276.

David Joel Steinberg (ed.), In Search of Southeast Asia: A Modern History, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2nd Ed., 1987, pp. 590 + xi.

Geoffrey B. Hainsworth, Innocents Abroad or Partners in Development? An Evaluation of Canada-Indonesia Aid, Trade and Investment Relations, Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Field Report Series No. 15, 1986, pp. 100

BRIEFLY NOTED: Ronald G. Petocz (Compiler), The Ecology of Irian Jaya: A Preliminary Bibliography, Halifax N.S., Canada: School For Resource and Environmental Studies, Dalhousie University, 1988.     

The conditions of collective action for local commons management: the case of irrigation in the Philippines

We examine factors affecting the success and failure of collective action toward the management of local commons. Using cross‐section survey data on the activities of irrigators' associations in the Philippines, regression analysis is conducted to identify factors underlying the success and failure in farmers' organizing collective action for the maintenance and operation of irrigation systems. We find that collective action is difficult to organize where (a) water supply is uniformly abundant; (b) water supply is greatly different between upper and lower streams in lateral; (c) the size of the association is large; (d) population density is low; (e) the share of nonfarm households is high; and (f) the history of irrigated farming is short. Our findings suggest that these difficulties can be overcome with adequate supports of state agencies to promote community‐level cooperation.     

Market Price Response of World Rice Research

Using the total number of research publications as a proxy, the output of rice research in the world is estimated to be highly responsive in the short run to price fluctuations in the international rice market. The results suggest a danger of the inducement mechanism of public investment in the agricultural production infrastructure being misguided by cyclical price changes, thereby leading to recurrent food shortages and oversupplies in a cobweb-like manner.