Social Networks and Factor Markets: Panel Data Evidence from Ethiopia
研究了埃塞俄比亚本土社会网络（iddir）如何帮助小农户获得土地、劳动力和信贷，并可能替代高利贷，表明非市场制度能促进市场交易。
We investigate the role of an indigenous social network in Ethiopia, the iddir, in facilitating factor market transactions among smallholder farmers. We use detailed longitudinal household survey data and employ fixed effects estimation approaches to identify the effect of iddir membership on factor market transactions among farmers. We find that joining an iddir network improves households’ access to land, labour and credit transactions. Our findings also hint that iddir networks may crowd-out borrowing from local moneylenders (locally referred as ‘Arata Abedari’), a relatively expensive credit source. These results suggest that non-market institutions can play crucial roles in facilitating market transactions.