Large plantations producing tropical cash crops based on hired labor represent a sharp contrast with small family farms, popularly called peasants in developing economies. The family farm is an old institution that has existed since time immemorial, but the plantation is a new institution...

This paper measures the economic impact of social pressure to share income with kin and neighbors in rural Kenyan villages. The authors conduct a lab experiment in which they randomly vary the observability of investment returns. The goal is to test whether subjects reduce their income in order...

"Most studies of the opening of the Chinese economy focus at the national level. The few existing disaggregated analyses are limited to analyzing changes in agricultural production. The authors use an innovative village equilibrium model that accounts for nonseparability of household production...