The transformation of the Communal Society in Uzbekistan: Micro-level Analyses on Social Networks

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 23730267
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Economic policy
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University
• Principal Investigator: HIWATARI MASATO 北海道大学, 経済学研究科(研究院), 准教授 (50547172)
• Project Period (FY): 2011-04-28 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: コミュニティ開発 / 社会ネットワーク / ウズベキスタン / 移民 / 空間計量経済学

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study empirically examines the roles and the structure of social networks embedded in the local community (mahalla) in Uzbekistan, a post-Soviet country in Central Asia. Using a detailed datasets of household networks/budgets derived from the author’s fieldwork in a rural village, first, we confirmed that all households in a rural village were intertwined in densely nested networks. Then, it attempted to identify peer effects in social networks on local economic activities at the household level. The empirical results of the spatial autoregressive models implied that social networks were positively influencing rural households’ economic activities, such as migration decision or increasing their wage earnings. Further, we showed that cash or goods that are privately received or given at the household level are strongly affected by social distances related to kinship relationship based on the dyadic regression analyses.

Free Research Field

開発経済学，比較経済学