Embedded Markets: Hired Labour Arrangements in West Bengal Agriculture

摘要

This paper analyses why agricultural workers in West Bengal sell their labour via different types of institutional arrangements. The aim is to contribute towards explanation of the coexistence of diverse hired labour arrangements. While neo-classicalinstitutionalist models have been found wanting in this regard (not least because of their tendency to focus on employers' choices alone), they offer important insights. However, the embeddedness approach taken here suggests that social and economic structures need to be specified prior to the analysis of labour market choice. Using microstudy data collected in 1991-92, it is shown that hired labour arrangements are embedded in the structure of asset ownership, and in ideologies of caste and gender.