A Behavioural Framework for Evaluating the Process of Economic Development

The need for more comprehensive development models to capture the behavioural dynamics of peasants in subsistence economies was emphaiszed at the 1976 IAAE Conference (Deaton; Mbithi; and Shapiro). This emphasis is consistent with Polanyi's claim that as a social being, man acts to "safeguard his social standing, his social claims, [and] his social assets" (p. 46). From this perspective, Deaton posited a general model of satisfaction maximization and illustrated the policy significance of the hypothesized behavioural relationships. The purpose of this paper is to extend the above thinking by: (1) presenting a conceptual framework of essential relationships for a satisfaction maximization model by drawing on three bodies of thought--economic anthropology, adoptiondiffusion (sociology), and production economics; (2) analyzing selected interrelationships; and (3) discussing the significance and implications of the model for economic development.