Aspirations failure and formation in rural Nepal
Aspirations failure and formation in rural Nepal
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DOI：
10.1016/j.jebo.2017.04.003
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发表时间：
2017-07-01
影响因子：
2.2
通讯作者：
Thompson, William M.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Janzen, Sarah A.;Magnan, Nicholas P.;Thompson, William M.
抱负（或缺乏抱负）最近作为对面向未来的行为和投资的行为约束而引起了经济学家的注意。在本文中，我们使用来自尼泊尔农村的独特数据集，对Appadurai（2004）、Ray（2006）和Genicot and Ray（2015）中阐述的愿望失败和形成理论进行了实证检验。我们提出了两个问题：(1)抱负和面向未来的行为之间的关系是什么？(2)一个人的愿望在多大程度上与她周围人的可观察特征相关联？我们发现，期望与理论预测的面向未来的经济行为相对应：在一定程度上，对未来的投资随着期望的增加而增加，但如果一个人的现状与期望之间的差距过大，随后投资就会下降。我们还发现，一个人的抱负与她的社会网络中地位较高而不是较低的人的结果有关。这些调查结果共同提供了经验证据，表明愿望可能是一种社会现象，可以刺激发展，也可以加剧贫困。Elsevier B.V.出版
Aspirations, or a lack thereof, have recently gained the attention of economists as a behavioral constraint to future-oriented behavior and investment. In this paper we empirically test the theories of aspirations failure and formation articulated in Appadurai (2004), Ray (2006), and Genicot and Ray (2015) using a unique dataset from rural Nepal. We ask two questions: (1) What is the relationship between aspirations and future-oriented behavior? and (2) To what extent are an individual's aspirations associated with the observable characteristics of those around her? We find that aspirations correspond with future-oriented economic behavior as predicted by theory: investment in the future increases with aspirations up to a certain point, but if the gap between one's current status and aspirations becomes too large, investment subsequently declines. We also find that one's aspirations are associated with outcomes of those in her social network of higher, but not lower, status. Together these findings provide empirical evidence that aspirations, which may be a social phenomenon, can either stimulate development or reinforce poverty. Published by Elsevier B.V.