Ph.D. Presentation Workshop

3 March 2009, King's Manor, University of York

The IPPG held a workshop for all five Ph.D. students connected to the programme to present their work so far to a panel of academics: Adrian Leftwich and John Parkinson (York), Kunal Sen (Manchester), John Morton (Greenwich), Blessings Chinsinga (Malawi), Paul Hare (Heriot Watt) and Steve Wiggins (ODI).

Electrifying rural India: interrogating the potentials of micro-institutions for efficient and effective service delivery – Ashwini Swain (York)

An energetic debate followed the first presentation of the day, with the assembled panel raising a variety of interesting points including:

The suggestion that the macro-context of the micro study should be included and that the study could also be opened up to include the political economy between citizens, state and electricity given the historic pattern of rural electricity supply.
Whether there was the possibility of characterising different institutions/incentive structures given the three micro institutions being studied; how does the interface between these micro institutions and service providers work and what is the influence of this relationship on outcomes.
Was there a proposed method for the formalisation of the micro-institutions and has though been given to the idea that these institutions work because they are informal?
Whether there was variation due to political decentralisation in West Bengal versus Orissa and if the study was going to address the issue of macro-level problems being devolved to local institutions, leaving the macro issues unaddressed; could the domestic electricity model could be generalised and applied to agricultural and industrial supply.

Groups, influence costs and institutional change – Shireen Mahdi (Manchester)

It was agreed that Shireen's presentation was interesting and very engaging; discussion included:

The suggestion that there was an interesting possibility for comparison with the coffee co-operatives in Kenya where, though the majority are regarded as being poor, great variations are evident.
The social embededness of local co-operatives versus the new institutions could be brought out more: where do the traditional village authorities fit within the model, and the relationship of these authorities with the co-operatives on the micro-level and the wider state on the macro-level; and whether the state has any interest in influencing the prices given to the producers.
Whether the authority exercised by the co-operatives were part of the traditional/'historic' power of the village elites or whether there was a 'power-creep': whether it was a legitimate use of power to control the market/price.
Do those producers who were members of the co-operatives have any influence over the running of those institutions – whether the co-operatives are run at a higher-level regardless of micro/local characteristics/opinions.
More work on the history of the co-operatives and how they developed in Tanzania and neighbouring areas could be included; and the role the co-operatives had in pre-financing agricultural inputs or credit.
Comparative studies could be carried out as to why in one marketing chain change would be successfully implemented but not in another marketing chain; as to the idiosyncrasies of village elites; and as to stakeholder responsiveness: collective action successes versus cultural identity issues in relation to the relative local co-operatives.
A comparison could be drawn with the Malawian tobacco markets in that when co-operative power to regulate the relationship between producers and private buyers was removed, exploitation increased. Are inefficient institutions may be better than no institutions at all?

Introduction to IPPG research on institutions and industrial growth in Ghana – Felicia Owusu Fofie

The peer review of this state-business relations-linked study of Ghana was robust and many interesting points about the presentation were raised including:

Geographically Ghana is bucking the trend having achieved 'good' growth over the last decade, but can this be sustained and it is now lagging behind comparable states.
There should be integration between the manufacturing and industrial sector interviews and the fiscal problems to add context: indebtedness, investment climate, etc.
What questions will be asked in the interviews? Will basic facts, influences, regulatory institutional constraints, policy environment, investor attractiveness be included? In order to bring out the formal rules versus the practice.
Challenging questions should be asked: what does Ghana look like to Malaysian investors? Why is there little industrial investment?
Will the chosen industries be segmented into firm size and what will the time dimension for the studies be? Investment and growth pattern over last five years?
The 'missing middle' should be investigated in comparison with other countries.
Is the choice of industries correct: traditional versus non-traditional but fast growing industries; survey of failed or un-started firms should be carried out; impact of government regulations on survival of local firms versus foreign companies (wood industry); lack of ability to meet international standards leading to lack of export market (food industry); the consequent effect on the local (poor) producers.
The health of state-business relationships over the last few government administrations and the effect on external sustained investment should be plotted.

Transaction costs and agricultural commercialisations: the role of market institutions and farmer organisations in improving market access and their effects on pro-poor growth – Matthews Madola

The afternoon session kicked off with Matthew's presentation, which proved to be very interesting and many of the assembled panel asked for copies of the database given the thought provoking results it had thrown out:

It was suggested that it would be very interesting to interrogate why have some households joined the organisations and some not? If there are no structural breaks in households then there is seemingly a direct correlation between membership of the organisations and increased income – are there, therefore, cultural/historical reasons for non-participation.
Differences in households should broken down into simpler illustrative forms in order to reinforce the econometric analysis displayed in the tables. Non-participatory households have more land but lower production – is there an issue of quality of land or difference in work ethics?
If there is little difference in the make up of participatory and non-participatory households, where is the 'big bang'? Is it from institutional make up: organisations versus spot market comparisons? And how could this be measured?
The exchange between the farmers and the organisations needed unpacking: is increased income due to membership or is membership more likely among farmers already experiencing higher income? Members may be intrinsically more 'business minded' rather than participation/membership improving behaviour. Are there other – hidden – costs of membership: on a social level?
There seems to be little inclusion of market institutions in the current study. How do these institutions relate to the farmer organisations and is there a (pro-poor) income effect on market access discernable in participatory households?

Institution formation, maintenance and change: the politics of state-business relations in Malawi – Henry Chingaipe

Henry is a second year Commonwealth Association Scholar studying at the University of York, under the watchful eye of Adrian Leftwich. His presentation included many controversial statements, which he qualified as being 'raw ideas' and a lively discussion followed:

The suggestion of a lack of 'institutional thickness' needed more explanation – how did this facilitate both formal and informal arrangements and how did the government try to formalise informal influence and relationships? And the suggestion that this lack of institutional thickness meant that it was relatively easy to build new institutions is questionable: what about the traditional/cultural hierarchies and institutions? Although the colonial powers may have ignored them, they would certainly have been there; there are also the traditions and hierarchies of the colonising powers to consider.
The sweeping statements about critical junctures and path dependency needed unpacking and evidencing, although the early stage of the research is accepted; the historical context of path dependencies also needs to be considered – the path taken to arrive at a juncture.
What are the state-business relationships being investigated? The business of conferring rents versus efficiency driving for example. Are there comparisons to be drawn from South East Asia?

The politics of institutional reform in land administration in Ghana: a political analysis of institutions, power and outcomes – Daniel Appiah

In the last presentation of the day, Daniel – a first year Commonwealth Association Scholar – presented his early thoughts on his thesis. The peer review was thorough and provided relevant and interesting feedback:

Why has Botswana succeeded with land administration systems when many other African nations, including Ghana, have not? The definition of 'informal institutions' needs more explaining in this context as does the question of ownership in relation to the government of such systems by state institutions.
What is the balance of emphasis on form and function? Formal versus informal; state versus customary for example.
What reforms are included in the study? Is it a study of a specific set of reforms or a study of the history of land reforms and the Land Administration Project in Ghana?

The IPPG co-directors went on to thank all the panel for attending – from as far afield as Tanzania and Malawi – and the Ph.D. students for presenting their interesting work and for their contribution to the IPPG consortium as a whole.

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Last modified: 31 March 2009