Puzzles in the Demographic and Economic Behavior of Rural Southeast Asians: An Economist's View

William Butz

Expert InsightsPublished 1971

Suggests research hypotheses for five puzzles of policy importance arising at a recent conference. The puzzles are: (1) Is the relaxation of restrictive cultural, religious, and social taboos during development a result of identifiable changes in peoples objective surroundings? (2) At successive stages of economic development, why do some people of Southeast Asia narrow their human capital investments to members of their immediate families? (3) Why are many rural Southeast Asians eager to adopt modern consumer goods, yet slow to adopt modern producer goods? (4) After an increase in their income through work outside the home or use of modern productive inputs in agricultural and cottage production, why do couples have more children in some circumstances but fewer in others? (5) Why do rural families in some communities maintain a constant size of household through outmigration of older children rather than through curtailed fertility? 12 pp.

Topics

Document Details

Citation

Chicago Manual of Style

Butz, William, Puzzles in the Demographic and Economic Behavior of Rural Southeast Asians: An Economist's View. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 1972. https://www.rand.org/pubs/papers/P4903.html.
BibTeX RIS

This publication is part of the RAND paper series. The paper series was a product of RAND from 1948 to 2003 that captured speeches, memorials, and derivative research, usually prepared on authors' own time and meant to be the scholarly or scientific contribution of individual authors to their professional fields. Papers were less formal than reports and did not require rigorous peer review.

This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited; linking directly to this product page is encouraged. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial purposes. For information on reprint and reuse permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.

RAND is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.