MARKETS, institutions and family size in rural Philippine households

In poorly developed market economies, high transactions and related costs, produce a pattern of market organizations with heavy relianceon traditional institutions for handling transactions.The family is one such institution because family ties or bonds allow more efficien, tcontractual arrangementsthan do markets. The family enterprise dominates such economies. In highly developed market economies, market transactions are low cost. Competitive suppliers provide information at low cost..The public sector providesgoods and standards that facilitate transactions.Communication is low cost. In such economies the family enterprise losesits advantage in many sectorsof the economy, and market transactionsdominate economic activity. In this paper we develop a framework for explaining the transition from nonmarket to market institutions. We usethe framework to generatespecific hypotheses which are confronted, in turn, with'evidencefrom the rural Philippines. Our specific focus ison the most pervasive and important of all traditional institutions - the rural household.