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Non‐economic Bases of Economic Behaviour: The Consumption, Investment and Exchange Patterns of Three Emigrant Communities in Kerala, India

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  • Prema Ann Kurien

Abstract

This article takes issue with the rational choice approach that views the economy as an autonomous realm where isolated individuals make maximizing choices in terms of their personal preferences. The argument made is that income generation, consumption and exchange form a holistic complex that must be studied in its unity and that the economy and individual economic behaviour are articulated with a social context. This is demonstrated by evidence (collected through fieldwork) on the differences in the use of remittances by three villages in Kerala, India, which have experienced large scale migration to the Middle Eastern countries. In the three cases, it was the way in which income earned from international migration was perceived, together with the variation in ethnic structures, that explained the similarities and differences in their consumption, exchange and investment patterns. In each case, it was the larger ethnic structure that conditioned (1) the types of activities into which the money was channelled; (2) the range of people who were the beneficiaries of migrant remittances; (3) the patterns of reciprocity or charity practised by the migrants; (4) the selection of the trade‐off point between community status and economic accumulation; and; (5) the groups of individuals who gained or lost economic control.

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  • Prema Ann Kurien, 1994. "Non‐economic Bases of Economic Behaviour: The Consumption, Investment and Exchange Patterns of Three Emigrant Communities in Kerala, India," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 25(4), pages 757-783, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:25:y:1994:i:4:p:757-783
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7660.1994.tb00535.x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Ashwani Saith, 1992. "Absorbing External Shocks: The Gulf Crisis, International Migration Linkages and the Indian Economy, 1990 (with special reference to the impact on Kerala)," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 23(1), pages 101-146, January.
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    Cited by:

    1. Manuel Couret Branco, 2005. "Cultural Attitudes and Economic Development: arguments for a pluralist political economy of development," Economics Working Papers 3_2005, University of Évora, Department of Economics (Portugal).
    2. Levi, Yair & Pellegrin-Rescia, Marie Louise, 1997. "A new look at the embeddedness/disembeddedness issue: Cooperatives as terms of reference," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 159-179.
    3. Mridul Eapen & Praveena Kodoth, 2002. "Family structure, women's education and work: Re-examining the high status of women in Kerala," Centre for Development Studies, Trivendrum Working Papers 341, Centre for Development Studies, Trivendrum, India.

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