Date of Graduation

8-2018

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Agricultural Economics (MS)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness

Advisor/Mentor

Huang, Qiuqiong

Committee Member

Gaduh, Arya B.

Second Committee Member

Nayga, Rodolfo M. Jr.

Keywords

Governance; Irrigation Investment; North China; Social Capital; Village Level Irrigation System

Abstract

Using data from China Water Institution and Management (CWIM) survey, the study first constructs measures of all three most studied dimensions of social capital: trust, networks, and norms. The study then examines if social capital has any predictive powers of individual farmers’ contribution decisions as well as farmers’ contributions aggregated at the village level. Farmers’ choices between different forms of contributions (labor versus cash) are also analyzed. Our results suggest that all three dimensions of social capital explain farmers’ contribution decisions. Governance quality of local irrigation systems and the norm of cooperation have strong predictive powers of farmers’ decisions to contribute. Strongly agree other villagers can be trusted is positively correlated with farmers’ decisions to contribute cash instead of labor and the share of total cash investment at village level contributed by farmers.

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