This paper gives some insight into the existence of a positive effect of family planning programmes on women’s employment in developing countries. We study married women aged 15 to 49 living throughout India using a sample drawn from the National Health Family Survey (NFHS-2) for 1998-1999. We...

In questa nota si discutono le recenti ricerche quantitative sulla storia economica italiana post-unitaria. Si valutano, sulla base di tali ricerche, alcuni recenti contributi alla letteratura sul dualismo tra Nord e Sud d’Italia. Infine si propongono due schemi teorici, basati su categorie...

In this paper we intend to rethink and to reinforce the arguments of the authors who critique the mainstream economic theories and the rational choice theory. We start asserting that a fundamental anthropological condition of the choice is the incomparability of many alternatives and that in...

We consider individual identity as abstract common social kinship, and model it as the fuzzy degree of membership to sets of individuals. We connect identity to propensity of cooperation as modeled by a Prisoners' Dilemma game played in pairs of individuals in a mixed population of cooperators...

The aim of this paper is to investigate the consequences of the Rwandan genocide on infant and child mortality. Between April and July 1994 Rwanda experienced a tremendous wave of inter-ethnic violence that caused at least 500.000 deaths. We use the Rwanda DHS 2000 survey to test if exposure to...

According to Plato, thymòs – a notion denoting the human need for recognition – triggers off the most powerful and overwhelming human passions. Indeed, any action originated and nurtured by thymòtic passions places its own raison d’être in itself. The acts motivated by thymòs can...

This article discusses Alvin Roth’s research about moneyless markets, and in particular about the manner in which kidneys are allocated to patients needing transplants. As Titmuss pointed out for blood transfusions, providing monetary incentives to blood donors may crowd out supply, since...

Without the passions there would be little reason to act at all. Nevertheless, in standard economic models human action is driven solely by self-interest: the passions are supposed to interfere with our ability to form rational beliefs and to make rational choices. In fact, any action originated...

Indivisibilities are at the core of economic theory as rarely individuals can or want to limitlessly divide goods, inputs and activities, as well as related economic phenomena such as economies of scale, externalities and public goods. Indivisibilities help in explaining conflicts over social...

Drawing on actual reinterpretation of Mauss’s classical essay on “the Gift”, the authors examine four ideal-typical forms of gift which recur in the anthropologic literature, and theoretically analyze them under relevant contemporary phenomena. Kula - as reciprocity gift-, Potlach – as...