While we’re linking to blogs that focus on the economic aspects of life, here is a plug for Credit Slips, a group blog focusing on “all things about credit and bankruptcy”. Not only does this blog have a great list of contributors, but they also bring in some star guests.
This week, Viviana Zelizer from Princeton’s Sociology Department has been guest blogging on topics ranging from the importance of personal ties in economic transactions to economic exchange across generations in families, the gendered aspects of spending and the intersection of economic transactions and intimate relations. (The latter is also the topic of her most recent book on The Purchase of Intimacy
Full disclosure, Viviana was one of my mentors in graduate school. However, I think that makes me particularly qualified to comment on how helpful her work is in understanding questions about how social relations and cultural context influence economic processes. Be sure not to miss out on this treat.
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Claudia 11.03.06 at 6:25 pm
Thanks for the heads-up on Credit Slips. I hadn’t seen that blog before.
John Quiggin 11.03.06 at 10:43 pm
This is a great blog. I was also unaware of it. I enjoyed Viviana’s post and will be keen to get hold of The Purchase of Intimacy
radek 11.04.06 at 12:00 am
Hmm, I’d also like to chime in with a big thanks for the pointer. This is a really good blog. Some of the issues, like intergenerational lending, personal ties, and gendered aspects of it pop up quite often in development economics. My impression from reading the posts above is that the approach is quite different but a lot of the conclusions are the same. For example with regard to “seperate spheres” thing. Economists haven’t believed that since Becker but even his economic imperialism has been very much tampered by what I guess one could call ‘sociological aspects’.
Oh yeah, while we’re on the topic. If you’re gonna lend cheap money to poorer countries, you oughta put it in the hands of the women. Men tend to spend most of it on beer, women tend to spend it on kids’ education (I’m exageratin’ but general point is valid). Interestingly, not only does educational expenditure per kid go up more when the woman gets the money, but also it goes up more for the daughters, helping to alleviate existing gender inequality. Sometimes when folks talk about “empowerment” it just sounds like fuzzy, nebulous, ill defined rhetoric but in this case it has a very concrete manifestation.
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