Agricultural Development and Household Incomes in Central Asia: A Survey of Tajikistan, 2003-2008

Two noted specialists on the agricultural economies of the former Soviet Union examine the effects of land reform on agricultural production and the income of rural house-holds in Tajikistan. The authors utilize official government statistics to discern trends of agricultural output at the national level, and the results of three extensive surveys conducted in 2007-2008 (N > 2,000) and one in 2003 (N = 4,000 respondents) by international organizations (United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Asian Development Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development, World Bank) to identify household-level changes. They also review the legislative framework for agrarian reform in the country; examine national-level trends in farm structure and organization, livestock production, farm productivity, and cropping patterns; and analyze shifts in size of land holdings and rural family incomes at the household level. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: D130, O130, P320, Q150. 11 figures, 10 tables, 42 references.     

Bank Depositor Behavior in Russia in the Aftermath of Financial Crisis

An international team of economists examines the factors influencing the behavior of Russian depositors in the immediate aftermath of that country's 1998 financial crisis, drawing upon two largely unutilized data sources—data from the Russian state savings bank Sberbank and a November 1998 household survey. After first reviewing the evolution of the household deposit market during the 1990s, they explore regional variations in net withdrawals from Sberbank branches during the period August-October 1998 as well as identify characteristics of individual/household depositors making (or attempting to make) such withdrawals. More severe runs on Sberbank outlets are found to be associated with more affluent and entrepreneurial regions, regions of more youthful and less educated population closer to Moscow, and areas with greater media freedom. Subsequent public opinion survey analysis of the socioeconomic correlates of runs on all Russian banks during the 1998 crisis reveals some interesting differences (in the effects of education in particular) on the propensity to successfully withdraw deposits.     

Working the Yucatán in the neoliberal landscape: household management,consumption and the lives of intellectual elite women

This article examines the lives of academic women in Mérida, the state capital of the Yucatán in southern Mexico. In particular, I consider the relationship between work – including household management – and consumer practices in light of Mérida's changing socioeconomic climate. I address how women's lives have been impacted by the neoliberal restructuring of Mexico's political economy and what these changes mean to their experience of university life, household management styles and consumption practices. I point out how labor and consumption are deeply interrelated cultural practices, which have acquired new meanings in the neoliberal landscape. Accordingly, consumption practices must be understood in connection with women's social and professional identities.     

东汉光武帝“度田”再论——兼论东汉户口统计的真实性问题

传统观点认为,光武帝刘秀度田是一次失败的行动。但事实上,光武帝严厉打击度田不实的官员,平息了由此引起的叛乱,使度田取得了成功。与度田措施相一致,光武帝执行抑强政策以限制和打击豪强势力,其政权并非代表豪强地主利益的豪族政权。度田事件后,与此相关的户口调查与上计制度一直得到贯彻执行,因此,东汉时期的户口统计数据是真实可信的。     

Husband's Circular Migration and the Status of Women left behind in Lamerd District,Iran

Iranian women often serve as temporary heads of household as husbands work elsewhere, returning home at intervals for several months. Results of this preliminary study in Lamerd District in Fars Province, with a high incidence of such patterns, show that, overall, wives of migrants are not ‘left-behind women’ as reported in other countries when husbands migrate. Rather, wives of migrating husbands report a higher level of satisfaction with economic resources and no greater physical or mental health problems relative to those in non-migrant relationships. Counter to expectations, autonomy reported by migrants' wives does not differ from that reported by wives of non-migrant men. Data suggest that work-migrant males, in particular urban migrants, may be more exposed to sexually transmitted diseases. Our findings are limited, being based on data on experiences of women in one district in Iran. There is need for more comprehensive studies based on representative samples.     

Teaching Historical Research Skills to Undergraduates: Thoughts on Microcomputers and the Classroom

Abstract. In a classic article written in 1994, Robert Fogel assumed that the distribution of calories per head is log normal and that the variance of income per head is greater than the variance of calories per head. Using these assumptions, Fogel was able to conclude that approximately 50 percent of the economic growth since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution is due to changes in nutrition. The author tests those two assumptions with the 1888 cost of living survey (U.S. Department of Labor 1890). Although he finds that the variance of income is greater than the variance of calories per head, distributional tests reveal that the distribution of calories per head is not log normal. In particular, the calorie distribution is skewed to the left, and the tails of the distribution are thicker than those of a log-normal distribution. Graphical tests, however, show that the log-normal assumption is appropriate, and departures from log normality are quite modest. Kernel density estimates further confirm that the distribution of calories per head is approximately log normal. Given the nature of the departures from log normality, Fogel's calculations may understate the role that nutrition has played in economic growth.     

A Biographical Note on James Maxwell,Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod

This note seeks to clarify the course of the career of James Maxwell, gentleman usher of the black rod in several earlier Stuart parliaments. Maxwell was a Scot who followed James I south in 1603, serving in his household and that of Charles I, first as a gentleman usher daily waiter, and from 1619 as a groom of the bedchamber. In 1620 he secured the office of black rod. In 1642 he failed to follow the king to Oxford but remained with the parliament at Westminster, although largely delegating his duties as black rod to his associate, Alexander Thayne. In 1647, he was allowed by parliament to attend the king at Holdenby House. He died in 1650 as earl of Dirletoun in Scotland, although the circumstances in which he acquired this title are obscure.     

Choice Flowers and Well-Ordered Tables: Struggling Over Gender in a Nineteenth-Century Household

Historical archaeologists have generally considered households as isolated,bounded entities, and not as sets of social relations. Consequently, the household has gone unrecognized as an arena of struggle. Analysis of documents associated with the household of nineteenth-century reformer Gerrit Smith challenges this approach. At his Peterboro, New York estate, a struggle ensued between family members because of conflicting ideologies of self-presentation, and between worker and employer on account of the period's shifting gender ideology. In order to access the meanings of objects excavated, the material remains associated with the Smith household must be considered in light of these struggles.     

Book Reviews

Books Reviewed:
Don Mitchell, Cultural Geography: a critical introduction
Lesley Head, Cultural Landscapes and Environmental Change
F Driver and D Gilbert, Imperial cities: landscape, display and identity     

新中国农村五保供养制度的变迁

五保对象是农村困难群体中最缺乏生存能力、最需要帮助照顾的弱势群体,为他们提供五保供养是有中国特色的农村社会保障体系的重要组成部分。50年来,在我国工业化、市场化和现代化进程中,农村五保供养制度大致历经了三次模式的更替：1956～1978年主要依靠集体公益金运行,是由生产队或生产大队组织实施的集体供养模式;1979～2001年是以村提留和乡纹筹为其经费和实物来源的集体供养模式;2002年以来以国家财政供养为主,集体保障、土地保障和社会帮扶为辅的现代社会保障模式。这三次模式的转变,既是我国五保供养工作进一步制度化、规范化和法制化与五保对象供养水平逐步提升的过程,也是五保供养从村民互助自养式的供养模式转变为由政府公共财政负担的财政供养模式的过程,又是探索建立农村现代社会保障制度的过程。