以財務日誌衡量能力-以孟加拉為例 - 政大學術集成

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(1)國立政治大學應用經濟與社會發展英語碩士學位學程 International Master‟s Program of Applied Economics and Social Development College of Social Sciences National Chengchi University. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. 碩士論文 Master‟s Thesis. n. al. er. io. sit. y. Nat. 以財務日誌衡量能力-以孟加拉為例 Measuring Capabilities: Using Financial Diaries in Bangladesh. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. 研究生：Julio Cesar Linares (呂智理) 指導教授：Yu-hsuan Su, Ph.D. (蘇昱璇) 中華民國 106 年 7 月 July 2017. 1.

(2) 國立政治大學應用經濟與社會發展英語碩士學位學程 International Master‟s Program of Applied Economics and Social Development College of Social Sciences National Chengchi University. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. 碩士論文 Master‟s Thesis. n. al. er. io. sit. y. Nat. 以財務日誌衡量能力-以孟加拉為例 Measuring Capabilities: Using Financial Diaries in Bangladesh. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. 研究生：Julio Cesar Linares (呂智理) 指導教授：Yu-hsuan Su, Ph.D. (蘇昱璇) 中華民國 106 年 7 月 July 2017. 2.

(3) 以財務日誌衡量能力-以孟加拉為例 Measuring Capabilities: Using Financial Diaries in Bangladesh 研究生：Julio Cesar Linares (呂智理) 指導教授：Yu-hsuan Su, Ph.D. (蘇昱璇) 國立政治大學. 碩士論文. 學. ‧ 國. 政治大應用經濟與社會發展英語碩士學位學程立. io. sit. y. ‧. Nat. A Thesis. er. Submitted to International Master‟s Program of Applied. al. n. iv n C Economics andh Social e n g cDevelopment hi U National Chengchi University I. 中華民國 106 年 7 月 July 2017. 3.

(4) 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 4. i n U. v.

(5) Abstract Financial diaries were first developed by Stuart Rutherford and others in an attempt to provide a better method for understanding the lives of the poor. The financial diaries in the present study track the cash flows of 39 people on a daily basis from March 2015 to November 2016 in the town of Kapasia, Bangladesh. The diaries provide a precise look at the different financial. 治政 had with them. Financial diaries help to uncover 大 the social dynamics that are hidden in nationwide 立 statistics by adding important ethnographic and decisions the diarists took over time and the different interactions that others. ‧ 國. 學. financial information in a day-to-day basis. Coupled with interviews, a more detailed understanding can be achieved about the different dynamics of the. ‧. lives of people living in poverty. The present study proposes the usage of. sit. y. Nat. financial diaries as a way to enhance both the practical and philosophical. io. er. aspects of the capabilities approach by providing an alternative way of tracing human development by focusing on the different rules and resources. n. a. v. l C of the diarists. The embedded in the social structure n i study outlined several. U. h. e nfinancial g c h i resources available to people different examples of the social and. and the different rules pertaining to these resources. The results measure how the different types of social and financial resources act as a precondition of choice as they can either enhance or reduce people‟s ability to do and be different things. Keywords: Financial Diaries, Bangladesh, Capabilities Approach. 5.

(6) Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... 5 List of Tables ................................................................................................................................... 7 Chapter 1 Introduction..................................................................................................................... 8 Research Question ..................................................................................................................... 10 Literature Review ...................................................................................................................... 12 Financial Diaries Overview ................................................................................................... 12 Gender and Development in Bangladesh .............................................................................. 15. 政治大. Approaching Capabilities ...................................................................................................... 17 Structuring Capabilities ......................................................................................................... 20. 立. Measuring Capabilities: Resources, Agency and Achievements .......................................... 21. ‧ 國. 學. Research Materials and Methods............................................................................................... 23 Chapter 2 Giving and Receiving ................................................................................................... 31 Incomes, Transfers and Gifts ..................................................................................................... 33. ‧. Mourning Gifts ...................................................................................................................... 35. y. Nat. Occupations ........................................................................................................................... 36. sit. Case Studies: Inorik and Panna ............................................................................................. 39. er. io. Agency and Transfers ............................................................................................................ 42. al. n. iv n C Chapter 3 Finance .......................................................................................................................... 49 hengchi U Turn Over and Cash Flow Intensity of Income ......................................................................... 49 Case Study: The Social and Financial Cost of Marriage ....................................................... 47. Debt ........................................................................................................................................... 51 Social Debt: The role of Howlats and Baki ........................................................................... 53 Savings ...................................................................................................................................... 59 Shohoz Shonchoy and Financial Design ............................................................................... 60 Chapter 4 Expenses ....................................................................................................................... 66 Chapter 5 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 73 References ..................................................................................................................................... 75. 6.

(7) List of Tables Table 1: Basic Demographics of the Diarists ................................................................................ 25 Table 2: Categories of Financial Records Tracked during Financial Diaries ................................ 28 Table 3: Total Amount of Money Earned by Diarists ................................................................... 34 Table 4: Income Classes for Male and Female Diarists ................................................................ 37 Table 5: Atil's Income, Gifts and Transfers Balance ..................................................................... 43 Table 6: Total Amount of Transfers to Others and From Others, by Female and Male Diarists .. 44 Table 7: Distribution of Transfers From Others by Female and Male Diarists ............................. 44 Table 8: Distribution of Transfers To Others by Female and Male Diarists ................................. 45 Table 9: Balance Of Wedding Costs ............................................................................................. 47 Table 10: Total Turnover and Cash Flow Intensity of Income ..................................................... 50 Table 11: Types of Debt sub-classes used by Female and Male Diarists ...................................... 52 Table 12: Distribution of Loans taken by Diarists by Institution/Social Arrangement ................. 54 Table 13: The Role of Baki ........................................................................................................... 57 Table 14: Debt Comparison between Sila and Shusom ................................................................ 58 Table 15: Different types of saving sub-classes used by Female and Male Diarists ..................... 60 Table 16: Distribution of the Saving Deposits made by Female and Male diarists throughout the study, by institution/Social arrangement. ...................................................................................... 61 Table 17: Distribution of Saving Withdrawals made Diarists by Institution/Social arrangement 64 Table 18: Female Diarists by their Main and Secondary Occupation, Income per Capita, Total Expenses and Total Income Balance ............................................................................................. 66 Table 19: Male Diarists by their Main and Secondary Occupation, Income per Capita, Total Expenses and Total Income Balance ............................................................................................. 67 Table 20: Distribution of Expense Classes for Female Diarists .................................................... 69 Table 21: Distribution of Expense Classes by Male Diarists ........................................................ 70. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 7. i n U. v.

(8) Chapter 1 Introduction Measuring the extent and dimensions of poverty at a global level has been what research on poverty has mainly centered on over the last few decades. International organizations and social scientists set the paradigm by selecting indicators taken from aggregated statistics or specific micro data in order to define, count and rank countries according to their level of poverty (Ø yen, 1996). Different measuring sticks such as the poverty lines developed by the World Bank have been criticized for their limited scope, arbitrariness and lack of reliability (Reddy, 2005). Building on Amartya Sen‟s capabilities approach,. 治政 hopes of creating more comprehensive methods of defining 大and counting the poor (Alkire, 立 2013). multidimensional poverty measurements have been developed over the last few years in. ‧ 國. 學. In recent years a complementary approach has been developed in an attempt to describe the dynamics of how poverty is experienced on an everyday level. Financial diaries were. ‧. first developed by Stuart Rutherford and others in order to provide an empirical method for comprehending the financial lives of the poor. The book Portfolios of the Poor: How. y. Nat. sit. the World’s Poor Live on $2 a Day (Daryl Collins et al., 2009) describes this method.. al. er. io. The diaries consist of tracking the cash flows and decision making of individuals in a. v. n. household over time. These provide a tool to enhance our understanding of how people. Ch. i n U. living in poverty deal with having low and often times unpredictable incomes.. engchi. Financial diaries can serve as a complement to existing multidimensional poverty metrics as they provide a very granular and comprehensive look into specific population groups, uncovering dynamics that might be hidden in nationwide statistics. Financial diaries can be used to complement, contrast and enrich the existing multidimensional poverty measurements and methodologies that evaluate the impact of programs, such as Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs). The present study takes place in Central Bangladesh. It is a methodological attempt to use financial diaries in order to understand and measure the capabilities of people by focusing on the rules and resources embedded in their social structure. The data from the financial 8.

(9) diaries facilitated the measurement and understanding of how the different types of social and financial resources available to people both shape and limit their ability to be and do different things.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 9. i n U. v.

(10) Research Question The present study is based on Central Bangladesh, where financial diaries were collected from March 2015 to November 2016. A total of 50 diarists were recruited. Savings groups, different forms of labor and income generating activities, expenditure behavior, debt-arrangements, gifts and money transfers are the main types of financial classes present in the study. By focusing on gender differences- particularly the ways in which women and men give and receive money- an outline of the diarists‟ life appears. The aim of the study is to explore how peoples‟ capabilities can be assessed through the. 政治大. usage of financial diaries by focusing on the different transactions that people are involved in throughout their daily life. By analyzing the financial diaries of these. 立. individuals, this study investigates the ways in which their financial decisions and. ‧ 國. 學. outcomes were shaped and limited by the particular types of social and economic structures that they were embedded in.. ‧. The present analysis divides and compares the aggregated choices of female and male diarists and questioned whether it was possible to delineate any clear patterns from the. Nat. sit. y. data that could be used to measure and understand their capabilities. Through the data, we. io. er. asked if it was possible to understand the capabilities of people in terms of the rules and resources that recursively make up the structures of their society. Our focus was on the. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. pre-conditions (resources), processes (agency) and outcomes (achievements) of choice. engchi. present in the lives of the diarists during the time of the study.. By viewing the diarists in the context of their specific social world, the study asks how women‟s resources, agency and achievements are different in comparison to that of men? How are the financial decisions of female diarists different from that of male diarists? Which rules/factors influence those decisions? How do monetary interactions with female and male diarists differ? What observable patterns can we derive from the data? What differences can be observed when looking at the resources the diarists had? How do gifts, transfers and debt differ when given to men as opposed to women? How do female and male diarists use these transactions when giving it to others? How to understand such transactions and how do they affect the diarists‟ wellbeing? 10.

(11) Through an analysis of financial flows, the present study outlines some of the diarists‟ resources and outcomes to construct a picture of their lives. Through this exploration the study hopes to contribute to the existing literature by providing an alternative methodology to measure and understand how capabilities are constructed and bounded by the specific reality that people face.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 11. i n U. v.

(12) Literature Review Financial Diaries Overview After Portfolios of the Poor was published, there has been an increased interest in carrying out financial diaries research in different countries in order to broaden the understanding of the financial lives of poor people with diverse backgrounds and experiences. These studies have helped to strengthen and expand a lot of the findings and claims made in the book. Countries where financial diaries have been implemented include South Africa, Rwanda, Mozambique, Tanzania, Mexico, Kenya, Pakistan and. 政治大. most recently in the United States (Anderson, 2015; Daryl Collins, 2007; Meka & Grider, 2016; Murdoch, 2017; Sanford, 2016; Tushabe et al., 2013; Zollmann, 2014).. 立. Several broad characteristics and similarities can be drawn from the different populations. ‧ 國. 學. where financial diaries were conducted. These characteristics are present in various societies who live on low wages around the world. The anthropological and economic. ‧. data that we can derive from financial diaries research provides insights of how global capitalism interacts with different societies living in poverty and the ways in which. y. Nat. sit. people protect themselves against economic insecurity. We reviewed some of the main. er. io. characteristics we found below:. al. n. iv n C ongoing commonalities found in theh financial e n glives c hofi theUpeople in their sample was that. The triple whammy: According to the authors of Portfolios of the Poor, one of the 1. households have to cope with incomes that are not just low, but also irregular and. unpredictable. Coupled with the few financial tools that can effectively manage these uneven flows of money, they face what they call a “triple whammy”: low incomes, irregularity, and a lack of adequate financial tools (Daryl Collins et al., 2009).. 1. Portfolios of the Poor tracked a total of 250 diarists in South Africa, Bangladesh and India. One of the main criticisms of financial diaries is that the number of people they rely on are too low to be statistically representative of whole populations. Despite of this, as more diaries are done with diverse backgrounds, we are able to say with more granular data whatever commonalities are found between different populations and across diverse regions. We take note of the limitations of our own study while at the same time acknowledging the complexity and layers of reality that are lost in national surveys about the lives of people.. 12.

(13) Patching income from different sources: Financial diaries research and others have found that because incomes are low, irregular and unpredictable, people have to rely on different forms of labor and entrepreneurial activities, as noted famously by other studies (Banerjee & Duflo, 2007). Social and financial debt, gifts and saving groups also help people in allowing them to have better chances at matching their expenses. Regular employment income is rare unless working for the state or running a shop and people tend to rely on self-employment and various combinations of agricultural and nonagricultural work, depending on the region in which they are in (Anderson, 2015; Sanford, 2016; Tushabe et al., 2013; Zollmann, 2014).. 政治大. High velocity of cash flows: In order to smooth consumption, people living in poverty have to patch income from different sources, which entails a high number of different. 立. types of transactions and money flows. Therefore, financial intermediaries are important. ‧ 國. 學. in order to help manage these flows (Daryl Collins et al., 2009).. Financial intermediaries: These can be either formal providers, like banks and. ‧. microfinance or “informal” ones, like money lenders, home savings, rotating saving groups like RoSCAs or ASCAs, and credit given at a shop. People are always using. y. Nat. sit. different forms of financial arrangements to help meet their needs. One of the most. al. er. io. interesting commonalities throughout the diaries around the world is that small, non-. n. interest bearing loans among individuals are more recurrent and prevalent than debt. Ch. i n U. v. coming from microfinance and money lenders. However, they are usually also smaller in value.. engchi. Social debt plays a crucial role on the daily life of the poor as it helps them to smooth short term consumption without having to go to a financial institution. Here we define social debt as any type of loan involving money taken between 2 or more individuals. There are many types of social debt. For example shop credit, which is prevalent across different societies and is mostly used as a way to smooth consumption when a customer is not able to pay. But these arrangements are not private and can lack reliability. When people don‟t pay back shop keepers or friends may rely on shaming, which harms the face and trust of people. (Anderson, 2015; Meka & Grider, 2016; Tushabe et al., 2013; Zollmann, 2014). 13.

(14) The Mexican diaries conducted in Oaxaca provided an interesting example of labor debt arrangements between two parties. The practice of tequio is a traditional system of labor exchange used by indigenous people in the south of Mexico. When one person performs a day of labor on another community member‟s farm, they are then owed a day of labor from this community member‟s family. It is a way of using their labor days as a form of currency (Meka & Grider, 2016). Transfers: The diaries in Mexico and Kenya show that transfers such as remittances are used either as insurance or as a way of investing in one‟s livelihood by buying better quality of food and services. In many cases, these raise the level of incomes people have,. 政治大. especially women (Sanford, 2016; Zollmann, 2014). Intra-household transfers measured by financial diaries help us delineate and understand power relations present in a family,. 立. as evidenced by the distribution and agency over money.. ‧ 國. 學. Forgoing medical care: Forgoing medical care is common within the diarists, especially among women who ignore their own health problems in hopes of saving for their families‟. ‧. needs. Delaying medical care often times happens because diarists hope to deal with the issue by relying on traditional medicine, by buying medicine little by little or simply. y. Nat. sit. because they believe the quality of care is too low. As a note from one of the field. n. al. er. io. researcher in Oaxaca points out:. Ch. i n U. v. “Today I found Señora Celia rubbing aguardiente on her daughter’s stomach.. engchi. Her daughter is very sick and they had to buy medicine. They took Montserrat to the health auxiliary services [in the neighboring community]. She really looked very bad, and so I dared to tell the family that they should take her to the community health clinic. They replied that this doctor offers a very poor level of care.”. As their health worsens diarists end up having to spend more money on medical bills. Often times, delaying medical care can be fatal. The report points out that people who are close to those who suffer from medical emergencies are the ones more likely to be asked for monetary aid. The authors of the Mexican diaries ran a logit model to see which factors influence the probability of health 14.

(15) expenditure during a given week. They find that when households borrow money from their social networks, they are 2.6 more likely to spend on health on the same week. The study stated that “households that borrowed from friends and family had higher health expenses in the weeks when they borrowed this money compared to weeks when they did not borrow from friends and family”. Borrowing happened when health expenditures rose above the threshold of USD$15. Remarkably, they do not see similar patterns when borrowing from other service providers. Overall, the Mexican financial diaries provide one of the most detailed studies implemented to understand the financial lives of the poor. People living in poverty and. 政治大. extreme poverty often times face very similar circumstances and shocks which they handle depending on a wide range of factors, such as the availability of financial and. 立. health services, social networks and sources of income. (Grider & Sanford, 2016).. ‧ 國. 學. Indeed, timing is of importance for people living in poverty. That is why most of the diaries have emphasized the importance of financial tools that are flexible, reliable and. ‧. structured in order to provide people with services that help them in having access to money when they need it and that allow them to save for any emergency or to buy a. n. al. Ch. er. io. Gender and Development in Bangladesh. sit. y. Nat. major asset.. i n U. v. Following a short but bloody civil war, Bangladesh became independent from Pakistan in. engchi. 1971. Soon after, Bangladesh became the site for Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), growing widely during the 80s and into the 90s, with big names like BRAC, ASA and the Grameen Bank providing a different array of microloans to individuals and groups (Davis, 2006). The dawn of the microfinance industry has led to many developments of financial products in Bangladesh and beyond, tipping with the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the Grameen Bank and its founder, Muhammad Yunus for their contribution to the reduction of world poverty (Yunus, 2003). While only the Grameen Bank has a special legal status as a formal financial institution, most microfinance organizations work under the rubric of an NGO, which in Bangladesh can be formed as a society, a trust, a non-profit company or a voluntary association 15.

(16) (Gauri, 2004). In 2006, the government of Bangladesh enacted the Microfinance Regulatory Law with the purpose of fostering sustainable development for the microfinance sector in Bangladesh (Mian, 2014). Despite the popularity of microfinance, recent literature about the effects that microcredit has on people living in poverty has casted doubt on the potential that microfinance has actually had and its prospects for the future (Banerjee et al., 2014; Rodman, 2012). Others disagree on the methodologies employed to measure the impact of microfinance on empowerment, arguing for the consideration of the views of people being targeted as the basis for analysis (Kabeer, 2001).. 政治大 patriarchy, which reproduces itself through operations of the patrilocally extended 立 household (Kandiyoti, 1988). Classic patriarchy works in a way where young women are The social structure of Bangladesh follows a pattern that scholars identify as classic. ‧ 國. 學. married and given away into households headed by their husband‟s father. Women thus become subordinate to all the men in their newly extended family and to the more senior. ‧. women, like a mother-in-law. Classic patriarchy is characteristic of South Asia as well as. sit. Nat. the peasantry in early agrarian societies (Wolf, 1966).. y. East Asia and the Muslim Middle East. This system is associated with the reproduction of. er. io. Katiyoti defines the patriarchal bargain as women‟s ability to strategize within a set of. al. n. iv n C 1988). Patriarchal bargains vary depending h e n goncthehdifferent i U ethnic group, class or caste. concrete constraints that reveal and define the blueprint of any given society (Kandiyoti,. one is dealing with and it exerts a great level of influence on determining the gender. ideology in any particular place. Patriarchal bargains affect “both the potential for and specific forms of women's active or passive resistance in the face of their oppression”. This is not a deterministic concept as patriarchal bargains change depending on historical transformations, imagination and the different material conditions in a given area. Gender and development scholar Naila Kabeer‟s study of a Bangladesh garment-factory industry, where she explores the changes in the patriarchal bargain by looking at the income-earning opportunities of women in relation to their intra-household interactions (Kabeer, 1997). She explores the power relations within family-based households once 16.

(17) women have access to new income opportunities and the effect it has on their choices. The author finds that access to new wage opportunities made a process of transformation in the lives of women in many ways, namely greater diversity in the social landscape as structural changes in labor markets, household arrangements, migration patterns and marriage practices took place. At the individual level the author notes that women have used this existing new opportunities in many ways; some to ensure a better life for their children, others to secure and bargain a more central place within their household relationships, invest in their dreams, to renegotiate the terms of the relationships which undermined their agency in negative ways and to be ability to walk out on abusive relationships. Yet access to new labor opportunities can sometimes come at a high cost. 政治大 risks as husbands seek to counteract their increased bargaining power with violence. A 立 for women. Upon entering the labor force, women with low bargaining power may face. study done by Heath in villages around Dhaka provides evidence of a positive correlation. ‧ 國. 學. between violence and domestic violence among women with less education and women who married at a young age (Heath, 2014).. ‧. A study of a village in Bangladesh shows how poverty can place strong tensions on the. y. Nat. different bonds of obligations between kinship and men‟s normative obligations towards. io. sit. women (Cain, 1979). They note the key to this system lies in the fact that “male authority. er. has a material base, while male responsibility is normatively controlled”. What this. al. n. iv n C h e n gability by religious and political systems. Women‟s c h ito Uproduce male offspring becomes. means is that patriarchy is grounded on the control of material resources and supported. one of their primary resources. The loyalty of their sons ensures them a place of power. within the household before and after they marry. Subdued to work at home and to have little access to other resources or job opportunities, the cycle of oppression reproduces itself as women are dependent on the level of responsibility that men decide to engage with them.. Approaching Capabilities The capabilities approach was developed initially by Amartya Sen as an alternative to traditional utilitarian and economistic conceptions of wellbeing. The capabilities approach was aimed to be an open ended approach which could be used to look at the 17.

(18) different functions and capability sets that a person could have (Sen, 1999). Capabilities refer to the actual freedoms that a person has to be and do different things, like being able to appear in public without shame or having access to financial services. However, Sen himself has noted that: “While the nature of the respective approaches has been much discussed and developed at the conceptual level, they have not typically been much applied formally with empirical data. There is a gap here that is somewhat similar to the hiatus between utilitarian theory and the practice of utilitarian applied welfare economics. The possibility of practical use is limited both by data availability and. 政治大 tended to be confined to a limited class of variables which are more precisely 立 the ambiguities of parts of the subject matter (so that the practical uses have obtainable, such as life expectancy)” (Sen, 2000).. ‧ 國. 學. Some note that the weaknesses of the capabilities approach are its extreme emphasis on. ‧. choice; obscurities in key concepts such as functions, capability and capabilities; and its emergence from a dialogue between economics and philosophy without much. y. Nat. sit. involvement from psychology, sociology and anthropology (Gasper, 2002).. al. er. io. In 1990, Sen and Mahbub ul Haq developed the Human Development Reports (HDR). n. and Human Development Indexes (HDI) in hopes of creating a multidimensional metric. Ch. i n U. v. that could measure the capabilities of people in different domains. The 2015 briefing note. engchi. of the Bangladesh Human Development report states that:. “The HDI is a summary measure for assessing long-term progress in three basic dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, access to knowledge and a decent standard of living. A long and healthy life is measured by life expectancy. Knowledge level is measured by mean years of education among the adult population, which is the average number of years of education received in a life-time by people aged 25 years and older; and access to learning and knowledge by expected years of schooling for children of school-entry age, which is the total number of years of schooling a child of school-entry age can expect to 18.

(19) receive if prevailing patterns of age-specific enrolment rates stay the same throughout the child's life. Standard of living is measured by Gross National Income (GNI) per capita expressed in constant 2011 international dollars converted using purchasing power parity (PPP) rates.”2 The HDI is only one of many different types of normative indexes that are meant to measure the extent of people‟s capabilities and inequalities in domains such as gender and poverty. When it was introduced, the HDI represented a movement away from pure growth-centric thinking3 and many improvements have been made to its computation and methodology ever since4.. 政治大. Yet the usage of such indexes introduces the problematic of homogenizing the reality of. 立. diverse societies into one “holistic” metric. While this might be useful to some policy. ‧ 國. 學. makers, it has the effect of filtering out the qualitative nature of different societies and does not portray much about the social dynamics and power relations at play. If the improvement of the human condition is the ultimate goal, these metrics do little in. ‧. informing us about the complexities and realities of everyday life, which is a pre-. sit. y. Nat. condition for better policy.. io. er. Even though the capabilities approach has been stated to be open-ended and adaptable to each environment, authors have first used existing categories across countries to provide. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. models like the HDI to measure the extent of human development based on the different. engchi. levels of deprivation of achieved capabilities that a person, household or country has. Philosophers like Naussbaum have theorized about categories of basic capabilities which are epistemologically based on certain assumptions of human nature (Nussbaum, 2011). In the present study, we argue for the usage of financial diaries as a complementary method of measuring the extent of people‟s capabilities from a more grounded approach. This analysis takes into consideration insights from different social sciences in order to provide a more cohesive understanding as to the complexities of social reality in Bangladesh. 2. http://hdr.undp.org/sites/all/themes/hdr_theme/country-notes/BGD.pdf Gertner (2010) http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/magazine/16GDP-t.html 4 http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/hdrp_2011_01.pdf 3. 19.

(20) Structuring Capabilities Anthony Giddens‟ theory of structuration states that structures in societies should be regarded as dual, that being “both the medium and outcome of the practices that constitute social systems” (Giddens, 1981).By this he refers to the idea that while human practices constitute and reproduce structures, structures in turn shape people‟s practices. Human agency and structure are thus not opposed to one another but actually presuppose each other in a constant process of reproduction. As Giddens puts it: “structures must not be conceptualized as simply as placing constraints on human agency but as enabling”. 政治大. (Giddens, 1976). In the glossary of The Constitution of Society Giddens defines structure. 立. as:. ‧ 國. 學. Structure: Rules and resources, recursively implicated in the reproduction of social systems. Structures exist only as memory traces, the organic basis of. ‧. human knowledgeability, and as instantiated in action (Giddens, 1984).. y. Nat. sit. Following Giddens‟ idea structures as being dual, resources are “the instantiations or. er. io. embodiments of schemas [rules], and therefore inculcate and justify the schemas [rules]. al. iv n C applied in the enactment/reproduction life” (Giddens, 1984) and resources as h eofnsocial i U h c g “the media by which transformative capacity is employed as power in the routine course n. as well” (Sewell, 1992). Rules (or schemas) here refer to the “generalizable procedures. of social interaction” (Giddens, 1979). Put more simply, resources are those things which can be used as a source of power in social interactions. As Sewell notes, these resources can either be human (“physical strength, dexterity, knowledge and emotional commitments that be used to maintain or enhance power”) or non-human (“objects, animate or inanimate, naturally occurring or manufactured”) (Sewell, 1992). Resources are distributed in many different ways across different societies, but they are nevertheless controlled by all members of society in different degrees. To conceptualize humans as having agency means, in part, to conceive them as being empowered by their access to resources (Sewell, 1992). 20.

(21) Giddens‟ structuration theory and Sen‟s capabilities approach can be merged in order to provide a more critical understanding of how capabilities are constructed, both in the material and ideological sense. Instead of first focusing on preconceived capabilities and functionings that are basic to people‟s lives, we first take a look at the rules and resources embedded in the diarists‟ social world. Through the data available from the financial diaries, it becomes possible to partially delineate and understand the diarists‟ social structure and agency. By observing the reality of people‟s decisions and outcomes through financial diaries data, we define the categories that appear through people‟s decision making as the diaries. 政治大. progress. We delineate these categories by comparing them (in this case between men and women) and looking at the discrepancies between them. In the following sections, we. 立. provide examples of the different rules and resources that became visible through the. ‧ 國. 學. diaries and denote the different ways in which the rules embedded in each type of transaction affected the diarists in different ways.. ‧. Measuring Capabilities: Resources, Agency and Achievements. Nat. sit. y. Naila Kabeer refers to the problematic of measuring and quantifying empowerment and. io. er. the structural parameters of individual choice in the analysis of women‟s empowerment (Kabeer, 1999). She argues how resources (defined to include not only access, but also. n. al. i n U. v. future claims to both material and social resources), agency (referring to processes of. Ch. engchi. decision making, negotiation, deception, manipulation and so on) and achievements (well-being outcomes) are interrelated dimensions of choice, which are to be taken as a whole in order to determine the meaning and validity of an empowerment indicator. Resources and agency refers here to Amartya Sen‟s concept of capabilities: the potential that people have to live the lives they want and to achieve valuable ways of “being and doing” (Sen, 1999). In Sen‟s vocabulary “functionings” refers to all the possible ways of being and doing that people in a specific context have reason to value and “functioning achievements” to all the ways of being and doing that are actualized by different people. Kabeer defines power as the ability to make choices. Therefore, to be disempowered is to be left out of choice. Empowerment is therefore a process of change, by which those who have been denied the chance to make choices acquire such an ability. Yet even if choice 21.

(22) necessarily implies the possibility of alternatives, not all choices are equally important to the definition of power as some choices are more critical in people‟s lives than others. First order choices under classic patriarchy such as deciding to marry, who to marry and when to have children derive other, less consequential choices, which are not as relevant in constituting one‟s life parameters. These choices are inevitably bounded by people‟s resources (preconditions). Kabeer argues that power can work both through consent and complicity, and also through coercion and conflict; therefore a lot of the unspoken rules and norms that people choose to follow are embedded in a more subtle level of reality. Bourdieu‟s concept of. 政治大. doxa helps to exemplify this (Bourdieu, 1977). Doxa refers to the traditions and beliefs which exist beyond a discourse or argumentation, and the different aspects of tradition. 立. and culture which have become „naturalized‟ and taken for granted. As Kabeer points out,. ‧ 國. 學. to go from doxa to the domain of discourse becomes possible when different competing ways of „being and doing‟ become available as material and cultural possibilities. In this. ‧. way, the commonsensical social order loses its naturalized character, revealing the arbitrariness of a given social order.. y. Nat. sit. These different ways of being and doing (capabilities) arise because of different rules and. al. er. io. resources that become available in a specific context. As seen earlier, structures of. n. domination such as classic patriarchy reproduce themselves through rules which are. Ch. i n U. v. based on material resources (like men‟s ownership of land) and the normative. engchi. responsibilities (social relations) that men decide to engage in with women. But these are not deterministic. This study contrasts the different sets of material and social resources that were available to the diarists and how the design of new rules in certain domains can bring about changes in the agency and outcomes for people.. 22.

(23) Research Materials and Methods The financial diaries were collected by Shohoz Shonchoy. Shohoz Shonchoy (Easy Savings) or P9 is a small experimental MFI established in 2002 in Hrishipara, a neighbourhood close to the Central Bangladesh market town of Kapasia. Shohoz Shonchoy - founded by Stuart Rutherford - offers a daily collection service for its savings and loan clients. In the spring of 2015, it asked two of its poorer clients for permission to gather details of their money transactions on a daily basis. These first two respondents began to provide daily data in March of 2015. All other diarists were selected from the general population around Kapasia, irrespective of their relationship with Shohoz. 政治大. Shonchoy5.. 立. Md Kalimullah, the Project Manager and Director of Shohoz Shonchoy, used his. ‧ 國. 學. knowledge of the area to select diarists in order to achieve a good balance of gender, age, income levels and a very wide variety of occupations. Later, additional diarists who identified themselves as smallholder farmers were taken up to form a total of 50 diarists. ‧. by the end of 2016. The diarists live or work in or around Kapasia, a market town of. y. Nat. around 350,000 people 6 . Diarists are paid 100 taka (US$PPP2.78) a week in. sit. acknowledgement of their help. Written confirmation of their consent to use their data. n. al. er. io. and photographs was obtained, and protections for their privacy are agreed upon7.. Ch. i n U. v. The Project Manager of Shohoz Shonchoy supervises a team of five data collectors (all of. engchi. them are employees of Shohoz Shonchoy) who visit their assigned diarists daily and use notebooks to collect information on “all the money that came into your hand” and “all the money that left your hand” during the day. Within 24 hours these data are transcribed into a database. In-depth interviews have been done over time to understand the background of the diarists, their ideas, and to ask follow-up questions about any particularities found on the diaries.. 5. We would like to express our deep gratitude to Stuart Rutherford, Kalimullah and all the staff at P9 for their time, support, insights and for providing us with the data and background information that made this research possible. 6 3,548,115 people according to a 2011 census. http://203.112.218.66/WebTestApplication/userfiles/Image/Census2011/Dhaka/Gazipur/Gazipur%20at%20a%20glan ce.pdf 7 All the diarists´names were changes for confidential purposes.. 23.

(24) The financial diaries in the present study tracked the cash flows of the fifty diarists over time on a daily basis from March 2015 to November 2016. Because the take up of the different diarists happened at different times, the starting time of the diaries varies from March 2015 for the earliest to February 2016 for the newest diarists. Some diaries were subsequently dropped due to inconsistencies in the data and various other considerations, leaving a total of 39 diarists8. The Hrishipara diaries provide a detailed look at the different financial decisions household heads took over the course of the study, such as their habits of making saving deposits and withdrawals, loan take up and repayments from formal and informal. 政治大. providers, the different forms of reciprocal and non-reciprocal gift exchange practices, and the money transfers happening inside their own households. Coupled with interviews,. 立. a better understanding can be achieved about the different dynamics of the lives of the. ‧ 國. 學. diarists and the common problems that most of them have to face.. Financial diaries provide key insights into the lives of people living in poverty that. ‧. otherwise would be lost in a national survey or poverty line. Even if the study uses monetary data to construct the diaries, what we care about are the decisions, relationships. y. Nat. sit. and outcomes that are visible through these monetary transactions and not just their levels. al. er. io. of income. The ways in which people living in poverty deal with health emergencies, pay. n. for weddings and funerals and lend to each other to smooth consumption are examples of. Ch. i n U. v. the sort of information that can be observed by using financial diaries.. engchi. During the analysis, we considered the relative differences of choice between women and men and not solely the absolute values, as the total number of men in the sample is higher than women (23 men compared to 16 women). Therefore, in some cases the quantities tracked by men are higher than that of women simply because there are more men. Nevertheless, while we still pay attention to the total values in each class, as we are interested in looking at the relative differences and patterns that are observable in the data.. 8. Out of the diarists that were not taken into consideration for the analysis of financial diaries, some of them were excluded because they represented very special cases and their balances are best portrayed as case studies, while some of them was because of bad data. In this study, we only relied on the story of one of these diarists (Panna) for comparison purposes. The different categories that follow do not take her balances into consideration.. 24.

(25) Table 1: Basic Demographics of the Diarists Name. Gender. HH9 size. HH composition. Main occupation. Inorik. F. 2. laborer. Bori. M. 5. widow and daughter couple and children. Sila. F. 3. Rasi. F. 4. Nashi. F. 3. Samu. M. 5. Falar. M. 5. Shusom Kami. M F. 5 3. Mirno. M. 3. Homim. M. 4. Namam. M. 5. Atil. F. Bishnu. M. Mohammed. M. Merona. F. 5. Prossim. M. 4. Alim. M. 2. Harish. M. 5. 3-generation. Abadhu. M. 4. Binufa. F. 2. Hardim. M. 5. couple and children divorcee and daughter couple and children. Abdullah. M. 7. Habibi. M. 6. Nilati. F. 4. Fulaf. F. 4. Aliza. F. 6. 3-generation. labourer. Nylufa. F. 4. housewife with sons + expatriate. housewife. widow and 2 daughters elderly couple and children couple and daughter couple and children 3-generation 3-generation widow and children couple and son. musician, laboring, shop helper. 1.42. shopkeeper. 3.84. stallholder. 1.13. brick breaker. farming. 1.66. boatman brick breaker. 2 faith healing, farming laborer, musician. 2.1. 政治大 shopkeeper laborer. 5.73 2.27. factory worker. tutoring. 2.38. cycle repairer. farming. 1.75. snacks vendor. mason's assistant. 2.94. housewife. veg seller, farming brick breaking. fisherman. couple and children man and wife. shoe-shopkeeper. io. laundryman. n. Ch. 3-generation + expatriate couple and children couple and children desertee and children. 2.08. farming, expatriate worker, truck helper barber, garments factory farmer. barber. engchi U farmer. 6.93. v ni. 0.96 3.29 1.69. expatriate worker, sewing garments worker. 3.97. government employee. medicine shop. 6.33. farmer. landlord, expatriate worker. 4.71. office cook. newspaper vendor farmer labourer. HH means households.. 25. Total Diary Time (in Days) 560 560. Very poor Extreme Poor Extreme Poor Very poor Very poor Poor Very poor Very poor Extreme Poor Very poor Very poor Poor. 514. Very poor Poor. 437. Extreme Poor Very poor Extreme Poor Very poor Very poor Poor. 424. Very poor Extreme Poor Extreme Poor Very poor. 408. Extreme Poor Poor. 374. 486 486 481 481 466 466 455 455 449 448 449. 437. y. sari seller. 2.04 5.57. farmer. couple and children. al. Extreme Poor Extreme Poor. ‧. 9. 0.73. sit. 5. Income class. er. 4. Income/cap/day, US$PPP. 學. ‧ 國. 立. brothers and their parents couple and children couple and children couple and children 3-generation. Nat. 9. rickshaw puller. Secondary occupation. 4.94. 1.57 1.32 carpentry assistant, barber, firewood shop housemaid. 2.14. expatriate worker, farming. 8.37. 1.64. 417 417 417 410 408. 407 375 374. 373.

(26) Name. Gender. HH size. HH composition. Main occupation. Secondary occupation. Income/cap/day, US$PPP. Income class. Perla. F. 3. housewife/farmer. expatriate worker. 11.94. Near poor. Sammadhi. M. 4. housewife with children + expatriate couple and children. farmer. boatman, investor. 2. Very poor. 374. Jihal. F. 4. farmer. expatriate worker. 7.52. Poor. 372. Anicca. F. 4. housewife/farmer. Near poor. 352. F. 4. expatriate worker, teaching, engineering dressmaking. 12.68. Toska. housewife with children + expatriate couple + daughter and son-i-l 3-generation. 0.88. 296. Sandip. M. 4. Assam. M. 3. Mizmo. M. 5. Anzarri. M. 3. Extreme Poor Very poor Very poor Extreme Poor Very poor. Yenma. M. 1. 3.83. Very poor. 286. Hazrim. M. 0.46. Extreme Poor. 277. labourer. 2.9 mason's assistant. 2.03. 政治大 labourer. boatman. 1.86. recycler. labourer. 3.95. domestic labour, odd jobs. shop helper. ‧. ‧ 國. 立. imam. 學. 1. couple and children couple and children couple and children man with family in village single man away from village single man away from village. office cook. Total Diary Time (in Days) 384. 296 294 286 286. It is always a single member of each household who is asked to report through the diaries.. Nat. sit. y. Grouped according to the types of households the diarists belong to, they fall into three. io. er. categories. The most common are the households where the members live together (eating from one kitchen) in a home in Kapasia. In such cases our diarist is usually the. n. al. i n U. v. household member who manages the household‟s money: this could be a man or a. Ch. engchi. woman, and they may or may not be the chief income earner of the household. By tracking all of that diarist‟s transactions, including transfers to and from other members of the household, we obtain a full picture of the whole household‟s financial life. The second type of household is where one of its members lives away from home, often abroad, but remits back periodically to the household. In such cases our diarist is the resident member of the household who receives the remitted income (directly or via intrahousehold transfers). For this group, only the residents are considered when calculating the household size, since the remitting member does not consume any of the remitted money and uses non-reported income to support themselves overseas.. 26.

(27) The third and smallest kind of household consists of a person living away from their family home, but supporting it. This group is composed usually of men living alone in Kapasia who send back part of their income to a household in their home village. In such cases, the migrant worker is the diarist, and his household consists of him and his village family (Rutherford, 2016). The main classes the data is divided into are Incomes, Expenditure, Transfers, Gifts and Finance, plus two extra classes called Payments and Project Loans. Table 2 shows all the different subclasses categorized during the course of the study time.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 27. i n U. v.

(28) Table 2: Categories of Financial Records Tracked during Financial Diaries EXPENDITURE. INCOME. FINANCE. TRANSFERS. GIFTS. PAYMENTS. Business Asset. Asset Sale. Loan Taken. Clothes. Boatman. Loan Repayment. Transfers To Another Transfers From Another. Payment To Other Payment From Others. Communications. Canvassing. Saving Deposit. Gift From Outsiders Gift To Outsiders Diary Reward. Education. Coaching. Savings Withdrawal. Farm Inputs. Day labor. Loan Howlat Given. Fees. Dressmaking. Food. Farm Sales. Loan Howlat Got Back Savings Accepted. Fuel. Fishing. Savings Repaid. Grooming. Footwear. Home Maintenance. Hair Cutting. Jewellery. Home snacks. Land Property. Kabiraz Healing. Transfer Loan Taken Transfer Loan Repayment Transfer Saving Deposit Transfer Savings Withdrawal. Livestock. Laundry. Medical. Loan Interest. Newspaper Stocks. Music. Recycling Stocks. Other. Rent. Recycling. Shop Stocks. Rent. Tea Tobacco Betelnut. Rickshaw. Toiletries. Shops. Transport. Tea or Snack Stall. Utilities. Vehicles. Vehicle Repair. Wages. ‧. Newspaper sales. n. al. er. io. sit. y. Nat. Other. 學. ‧ 國. 立. 政治大. Ch. engchi. Wages Work tools. 28. i n U. v. PROJECT LOANS Project Loan Project Repayment.

(29) In total, we have 26 subcategories for Expenses, 24 for Incomes, 12 for Finance (which includes all forms of debts and saving transactions), and 2 for Payments and Project loans each 10 . The Gifts and Transfer classes are divided into 2 basic sub-categories. These include all the money that diarists gave to others and all the money they received from others. The Gifts class has an extra subclass which shows the diary reward given to the diarists in exchange for their participation in the study. By comparing choice between male and female diarists, we found a lot of commonalities and differences between them. These were present not only in their decision making but also in the ways people in their lives interacted with them monetarily. Out attempt was to. 政治大. outline the capabilities of people over time based on the observed differences in interactions. Reconciling the philosophical underpinnings of the capabilities approach. 立. with a method that can determine how capabilities are constructed proved to be a. ‧ 國. 學. challenging task, both from an epistemological and methodological perspective. In the context of Bangladesh, the implicit beliefs (doxa) people have are of importance. ‧. because they shape and limit the agency of many of the diarists in a specific way. Decisions are thus bounded by a certain logic that sometimes is not directly influenced by. y. Nat. sit. the individuals involved, but merely accepted as the norm. An example is the custom of. al. er. io. dowry. When comparing their money inflows and outflows by gender, we can determine. n. some of these implicit values and how these affect different people in various ways.. Ch. i n U. v. Deriving the validity and measurement of agency directly from the choices that people. engchi. make is thus a questionable task. To go around this problem we decided to pay attention to the different resources (pre-conditions of choice) that the diarists had access to and that we could measure with the diaries and then compared the lives of the diaries as they developed through time. Financial diaries enabled us to measure the social and financial resources that people had in their command. Following the logic of resources as a precondition of choice, we then followed the stories in the diaries. We wanted to understand whether the different. 10. These are non-interest bearing loans which were given to two diarists in order to help them deal with over-indebtedness.. 29.

(30) resources diarists had affected their agency in different domains and in turn their achievements. Yet resources do not determine people‟s entire agency. We do not claim to be able to measure all capabilities of people by using financial diaries. On the contrary, daily monetary interactions can tell us a lot from people‟s lives and their ability to be and to do different things but it only provides part of the story. In the end, we were able to measure the different forms of social and financial resources available to people, and observed how these played a role in enabling the diarists to choose. The present study outlines some examples of these choices. This granular inquiry into people‟s lives still omits many details and we hope to keep developing ways in which to. 政治大. use financial diaries as a complementary tool for measurement.. 立. .. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 30. i n U. v.

(31) Chapter 2 Giving and Receiving When labor markets don‟t work in a periodic way, wage earners face a very unstable situation. Deriving an income becomes unpredictable as supply for work is not constant. People living in poverty are thus planning mostly for the short term, patching up their income from different sources. Faced with a lack of periodicity and predictability of incomes, people have to rely more on people in their social network and the financial tools available to them. Adding to that, access to land and other mayor assets is expensive. 政治大 living in poverty face a cycle where the money they earn is not enough in order to save 立 for major investments. Any time they face a crisis or are simply out of cash, they rely on. and sometimes unavailable to some groups do to their gender or social class. People. ‧ 國. 學. various forms of debt and saving arrangements, gifts and transfers that allow them to smooth their consumption.. ‧. Each type of category is bounded by a different logic. Whether this logic is commercial,. y. Nat. moral or religiously bounded depends on the specific transaction or social ritual. Gifts. sit. given for the religious festival of Puja are different from transfers given from a son to a. er. io. mother. Non-interest bearing loans between individuals are different from debts coming. al. n. iv n C while some are not. Some categories reliable U hare i than others while some might be e nmore h c g more flexible. Nevertheless, diarists were always engaged in giving and receiving money, from microfinance institutions and money lenders. Some relationships are reciprocal. which allows us to track and understand the dynamics of their daily life. This giving and receiving of money tells a story about the life of each diarist, particularly about the social and financial relationships that are existent in their lives. Because the people in the area face similar situations, through a study of the diaries it becomes possible to delineate the structure of how different processes in society work and how they affect women and men differently. We hereby refer to social resources to denote all forms of monetary debt, savings, gifts and transfers of money that involve direct interaction between two individuals or more. 31.

(32) Financial resources are the forms of debt and savings that come through financial institutions like microfinance institutions, NGOs, banks and so on. Social resources can be conceptualized as a baseline mechanism of support that is at the disposal of people and is used in order to deal with risk whenever unexpected situations happen. Financial resources appear as a secondary (and complementary) line of support and they work by linking individuals to institutions that provide a financial service. Social and financial resources are a pre-condition of choice as they can expand (or retract) people‟s ability to do and be more things. Whether these resources help to change (or maintain) the pre-existing social structures depend on the specific process and design behind each type of transaction.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 32. i n U. v.

(33) Incomes, Transfers and Gifts Most of the literature on poverty measurements relies on counting the amount of income people earn/spend on average per day. The paradigm for knowing if somebody is considered to be poor have been the absolute and relative poverty lines devised by the World Bank and various other international and national organizations. They are supposed to account for the amount of expenses needed to supply a human being with the goods necessary in order to provide basic nourishment. Yet poverty lines do not provide a full picture of the financial lives of the poor. For example, a study done in South Africa using income data shows that poverty rate calculated from observed income without. 政治大. remittances is significantly higher compared to poverty derived observed income with remittances (Biyase, 2012).. 立. ‧ 國. 學. Our research tracked the money inflows and money outflows that the diarists had on a daily basis. If we were to look only at the income earned directly from different forms of labor, we would end up with a narrow picture of reality. Financial diaries allow us to. ‧. check the amount of income earned by each diarist, yet this does not portray the total. y. Nat. amount of money they actually have in their command. Debt, gifts and transfers represent. er. io. sit. a very significant “supplement” of income, especially among women.. Table 3 shows the total amount of income earned by each diarist over the course of this. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. study, the balances of the gifts and transfers they were involved in and the total amount. engchi. of income earned after accounting for these categories.. 33.

(34) Table 3: Total Amount of Money Earned by Diarists11 Female Diarists HH size. Total Diary Time (in Days). Income/cap/day, US$PPP. Total Income Earned Over Diary Time. Gifts from Outsiders. Gifts to Outsiders. Total Gift Balance. Inorik. 2. 560. 0.238. 21310. 395. 50. 345. Sila. 3. 514. 8.687. 1071620. 4500. 1790. 2710. Rasi. 4. 486. 0.740. 115043. 34745. 700. Nashi. 3. 486. 0.450. 52459. 44690. Kami. 3. 466. 0.338. 37760. Atil. 4. 448. 0.037. Merona. 5. 437. Binufa. 2. 410. Nilati. 4. Fulaf. Total Transfers Balance. Total Money Earned / Income. -513. Total Money Earned (Incomes + Transfers + Gifts) 21142. 513 2000. 3362. -1362. 1072968. 1.001. 34045. 8200. 9529. -1329. 147759. 1.284. 230. 44460. 750. 4601. -3851. 93068. 1.774. 41592. 5697. 35895. 14708. 4192. 10516. 84171. 2.229. 5250. 36119. 3340. 32779. 103885. 28838. 75047. 113076. 21.538. 6.601. 1153828. 0.475. 31132. 21000. 12530. 8470. 政治大. 166000. 65260. 100740. 1263038. 1.095. 3500. 1274. 2226. 10500. 14950. -4450. 28908. 0.929. 375. 0.054. 6490. 10000. 7590. 2410. 181885. 450. 181435. 190335. 29.327. 4. 374. 0.104. 立. 12390. 52300. 8810. 43490. 88860. 1765. 87095. 142975. 11.540. Aliza. 6. 374. 0.014. 2600. 2600. 3410. -810. 187486. 15282. 172204. 173994. 66.921. Nylufa. 4. 373. 12830. -12830. 360500. 25230. 335270. 454145. 3.448. Perla. 3. 384. 25960. -25260. 345500. 10769. 334731. 311411. 160.521. Jihal. 4. 372. 11300. -11300. 559400. 7029. 552371. 544321. 167.483. Anicca. 4. 352. Toska. 4. 296. 6940. -6940. 544417. 14153. 530264. 533724. 51.320. 5070. -557. 17160. 19525. -2365. 18013. 0.860. Name. HH size. Total Diary Time (in Days). Income/cap/day, US$PPP. Gifts to Outsiders. Difference. Transfers from Others. Transfer to Others. Difference. Total Money Earned / Income. 4125. -3455. 12320. 7463. 4857. Total Money Earned (Incomes + Transfers + Gifts) 151352. Bori. 5. 560. 0.669419643. Samu. 5. 481. Falar. 5. Shusom. 0.021. 1940. 0.027. 3250. 0.092. 10400. 0.221. 20935. 4513. Total Income Earned Over Diary Time. Gifts from Outsiders. 700. n. sit. er. io. al. y. Male Diarists. ‧. 131705. Nat. 1.103. Transfers from Others. 學. Transfer to Others. ‧ 國. Name. Ch. i n U. v. 0.992. 149950. 670. 1.045010395. 201060. 600. 1600. -1000. 2700. 6280. -3580. 196480. 0.977. 481. 0.675753638. 130015. 200. 4130. -3930. 29900. 1325. 28575. 154660. 1.190. 5. 466. 4.8284603. 900025. 100. 9430. -9330. 195934. 4045. 191889. 1082584. 1.203. Mirno. 3. 455. 0.771474359. 84245. 15245. 4372. 10873. 2500. 3324. -824. 94294. 1.119. Homim. 4. 455. 1.195645604. 174086. 20. 2040. -2020. 6500. 21000. -14500. 157566. 0.905. Namam. 5. 449. 3.951804009. 709744. 1900. 211. 1689. 4300. 21788. -17488. 693945. 0.978. Bishnu. 5. 449. 0.881959911. 158400. 62160. 33415. 28745. 128130. 8617. 119513. 306658. 1.936. Mohammed. 9. 437. 1.067299136. 335815. 7450. -7450. 30950. 3215. 27735. 356100. 1.060. Prossim. 4. 424. 0.964033019. 130800. 0. 5700. 285. 5415. 136215. 1.041. Alim. 2. 417. 1.879511391. 125401. 4659. -4659. 22000. 16543. 5457. 126199. 1.006. Harish. 5. 417. 0.880965228. 146945. 130. -130. 17740. -17740. 129075. 0.878. Abadhu. 4. 417. 1.272669365. 169825. 5000. 163700. 11247. 19293. 352818. 2.078. 11. engchi. 168700. 30540. The market exchange rate for at the time of the end of the study was 1 USD = 77.3288 BDT.. 34. 1.009.

(35) Name. HH size. Total Diary Time (in Days). Income/cap/day, US$PPP. Total Income Earned Over Diary Time. Gifts from Outsiders. Gifts to Outsiders. Difference. Transfers from Others. Transfer to Others. Difference. Total Money Earned / Income. 179393. Total Money Earned (Incomes + Transfers + Gifts) 683060. Hardim. 5. 408. 2.672622549. 436172. 69095. 1600. 67495. 209400. 30007. Abdullah. 7. 408. 1.90730042. 435780. 800. 5320. -4520. 284500. 28792. 255708. 686968. 1.576. Habib. 6. 407. 2.687802007. 525089. 44000. 4950. 39050. 17075. -17075. 547064. 1.042. Sammadhi. 4. 374. 1.317805816. 157715. 1470. -1470. 3560. -3560. 152685. 0.968. Sandip. 4. 296. 1.427364865. 135200. 500. 24500. 1800. 14785. -12985. 146715. 1.085. Assam. 3. 294. 1.057823129. 74640. 0. 50000. 155400. -105400. -30760. -0.412. Mizmo. 5. 286. 1.015839161. 116212. 0. 2200. 10960. -8760. 107452. 0.925. Anzarri. 3. Yenma. 1. 286. 2.645265152. 181571. 500. -500. 510. -510. 180561. 0.994. 286. 4.122814685. 94330. 320. -320. 79615. -79615. 14395. 0.153. Hazrim. 1. 277. 1.962093863. 43480. 33000. -26000. 17480. 0.402. 立. 25000. 政治大 0. 7000. The Total Money Earned column shows the incomes of the diarists plus the remaining. ‧ 國. 學. balances after deducting the Transfers and Gifts given to and received from others. In this regard, Transfers and Gifts could also be considered what economists call “unearned”. ‧. income. About 12 of the 16 female diarists at least doubled the money they actually earned if we take into consideration the contributions gained from Gifts and Transfers. In. Nat. sit. y. contrast, only one of the male diarists doubled the actual amount of money he had, after. io. er. accounting for the balances in Transfers and Gifts. This gives light to the structural income inequalities between men and women as well as the prevalence of social. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. relationships in the area. As exemplified by the table above, women have access to more. engchi. social resources than men in terms of the gifts and transfers that they received. This allows them to have more access to capital that they otherwise would not have access to. Yet access to social resources does not necessarily lead to an „expansion‟ of agency, as these transactions are bounded by the underlying rules in society.. Mourning Gifts In order to exemplify how the different types of social resources become available to people in reality, we take a look at the monetary process that follows the mourning for the dead. Monetary gifts in Bangladeshi society are given when somebody dies. Female diarist Kami lost her husband during the course of the study. She works occasionally as a 35. 1.566.

(36) part time house maid. She is illiterate. Her husband was injured carrying rice sacks four years back and have never recovered fully from the accident. Because of religious customs, she could not work for eleven days after her husband died. Friends, relatives and neighbors helped her during the days following his death and the days before because of his ailment. The total amount of gifts she received from others. amounted to 16,255 taka. Her biggest expense after the death was a 1,000 taka piece of cloth she bought for the funeral after his death and a 1,100 taka fee paid to the priest who hosted the ceremony. Her husband had an account with ASA, a local microfinance provider, which she closed after his death and removed all his savings. She. 治政大death, Kami received almost still received a total of 3,430 taka. Prior to her husband‟s 立 the anniversary of her son‟s death. 1,000 taka in gifts to commemorate had her loan balance paid off out of her husband‟s death insurance (an ASA scheme) and. ‧ 國. 學. Here we see how Kami‟s agency to be able to work is overridden by the overarching cultural rule predetermined by tradition in Bangladesh society. This form of mourning is. ‧. countered monetarily by the form of gifts offered to Kami, which she used to pay for the. y. Nat. expenses of her husband‟s death and to take care of her daily expenses. The social. sit. resources gained enabled the mourning process to happen and work partially as a social. al. er. io. insurance to the widow until the end of the eleven days and beyond. This exemplifies. v. n. how rules and resources recursively create structures in society.. Occupations. Ch. engchi. i n U. Our diarists had different occupations. While male diarists rely mostly on their own labor as a source of cash, most of the female diarists earned money from sources unrelated to their labor. We account for the primary and secondary occupation of each of the diarists. In total we counted 24 forms of labor that the diarists were involved in. Out of these 24 labor types, female diarists were only involved in 7 different types. Table 4 summarizes the results.. 36.

(37) Table 4: Income Classes for Male and Female Diarists Number of Transaction Men. Number of Men Reporting this Type of Labor. Percentage. Average Transaction Per Person. Total Sum. Asset Sale. 2. 1. 4.34%. 2. 14200. Boatman. 682. 2. 8.69%. 341. 284606. Canvassing (elections) Coaching. 13. 2. 8.69%. 6.5. 5200. 21. 1. 4.34%. 21. Day Labour. 4. 2. 8.69%. Dress Making. 1. 1. Farm Sales. 413. Fishing. 421. Foot Wear. Average. Min. Max. 14200. 7100. 3500. 10700. 142303. 417.92. 0. 1000. 2600. 400. 150. 800. 29200. 29200. 1390.47. 500. 2200. 2. 1450. 725. 362.5. 200. 500. 4.34%. 1. 21. 21. 21. 21. 21. 9. 39.13%. 45.89. 675521. 75057.89. 1635.64. 35. 58000. 2. 8.69%. 210.5. 132205. 66102.5. 314.02. 50. 2100. 670. 1. 4.34%. 670. 125780. 125780. 187.73. 5. 2600. Hair Cutting. 396. 1. Kabiraz Healing Laundry. 40. 1. 396. Loan Interest. 1. Music. 政治大 396. 146945. 146945. 371.07. 50. 4000. 4.34%. 40. 18265. 18265. 456.62. 100. 2600. 396. 65914. 65914. 166.45. 15. 1020. 4.34%. 1. 2000. 2000. 2000. 2000. 2000. 97. 2. 8.69%. 48.5. 119931. 59965.5. 1236.40. 50. 10100. Newspapers. 674. 1. 4.34%. 674. 518089. 518089. 768.67. 200. 8000. Other. 39. 9. 39.13%. 4.33. 64525. 7169.44. 1654.48. 100. 32000. Recycling. 1. 1. 4.34%. 1. 2400. 2400. 2400. 2400. 2400. Rent. 200. 6. 26.08%. 33.33. 208700. 34783.33. 1043.5. 50. 5800. Rickshaw. 461. 1. 4.34%. 461. 99924. 99924. 216.28. 0. 400. Shops. 14736. 3. 13.04%. 4912. 1036072. 70.30. 0. 3500. Tea Or Snack Stall Vehicles. 5076. 2. 8.69%. 2538. 1169992. 584996. 230.49. 8. 2300. 2. 8.69%. 345. 168886. 84443. 244.76. 10. 2000. Wages. 478. 11. 47.82%. 43.45. 722780. 65707.27. 1515.262. 40. 17000. Female Diarist's Income Class. Number of Transactions Women. Number of Women Reporting this Type of Labor. Percentage. Average Transaction Per Person. iv. Total Sum. Average per Person. Average. Min. Max. Dress Making. 1. 1. n. Ch. engchi. 345357.3. sit. io. al. er. Nat. 690. 學. 4.34%. 1. ‧ 國. 1. 4.34%. ‧. 立. Average Per Person. y. Male Diarists' Income Class. Un. 6.25%. 1. 200. 200. 200. Farm Sales. 338. 9. 56.25%. 37.56. 224820. 24980. 665.14. 5. 8015. Homesnacks. 8. 1. 6.25%. 8. 2065. 2065. 258.12. 60. 780. Other. 69. 14. 87.50%. 4.93. 15656. 1118.29. 226.89. 5. 2400. Rent. 17. 3. 18.75%. 5.67. 14800. 4933.33. 870.58. 200. 1200. Shops. 3123. 2. 12.50%. 1561.5. 1192331. 596165.50. 381.79. 1. 11000. Wages. 1472. 7. 43.75%. 210.29. 159620. 22802.86. 108.21. 0. 3000. The most recurrent forms of labor for both female and male diarists were the categories of Others, Farm Sales and Wages. However, the jobs available to men differ from those of women. We see that male diarists have a wider array of possible professions which they can specialize in such as hair cutting, fishing, or driving a rickshaw. One of the male. 37.

(38) diarists even works part time as a traditional healer or kabiraz, while 2 of the male diarists work as drummers in a local band. On the other hand, female diarists‟ options resemble as a lot of them work informally, doing various tasks such as part-time farming; few earn an income from rent while only two of them own a shop. For the female diarists, the category of Others includes the sale of various items such as iron, paper, rice, coal and leather, doing day labor jobs like brick-breaking, as well as money earned from attending agricultural training programs. Patriarchal power relations play out in Bangladeshi society, were women tend to work in more informal and irregular jobs, without specializing in a specific profession and. 政治大 women in the study engaged in some type of informal labor, compared to 39.13% of men. 立 This exemplifies how the individual agency of women to develop in a specific profession. focusing more on the raising of children and household work. About 87.50% of the. ‧ 國. 學. is thus subdued by the rule of Bangladeshi society. Because their occupation possibilities are limited, gifts and transfers work as social redistributive mechanisms that have the. ‧. effect of lowering the chaotic financial situation that women often times face. These social resources allow women to do and be more things which they would not be able to. y. Nat. sit. otherwise as they provide a safety need for them to build while at the same time bind. al. er. io. them to the rules which constrict them. As with mourning gifts, the rules behind each. n. type of social resource available to women varies according to the specific custom one is dealing with.. Ch. engchi. 38. i n U. v.

(39) Case Studies: Inorik and Panna The different types of labor tell a story about each diarist and the way in which they earn part of their money. Take for example female diarist Inorik, who does casual work in shops in the Kapasia market like bringing water to shops and selling vegetables. Inorik‟s story exemplifies how social relationships can shape one‟s capabilities. When she was a child, she witnessed how her mother was burned alive because of a candle that fell on her sari during a cold night. Inorik was traumatized by this. She was then married off when she was 12 years old. Immediately after she married, her husband took another woman, which she protested about and eventually decided to leave and go back to her. 政治大 documentation isn‟t legally required 立 for a divorce.. parents. There was never any official divorce, as in Bangladeshi Hindu law. ‧ 國. 學. After her first marriage ended, Inorik was subdued to be a housemaid for her brothers without any pay. Women who go back to their families after their marriages fail can be. ‧. considered to be a financial burden and thus a “bad investment”. Since dowry is essentially a patriarchal transaction of women for money, there is no way of determining. sit. y. Nat. whether or not an investment will be “profitable” or not. After some time, Inorik‟s family. io. er. forced her to marry a wandering beggar who died 3 years after their daughter was born, making Inorik‟s situation with her family even worse. Their home is just a few tin sheets. n. al. i n U. v. propped against the wall of one of her brothers‟ houses. Inorik occasionally begs for. Ch. engchi. money in the streets when she cannot get a job at the local market stalls. Instead of wanting her daughter to marry by love, Inorik reproduces the rule of wanting to marry her daughter through an arranged marriage. Inorik, despite of her experience, is constantly saving for her daughter‟s education because she believes this will enable her to have a better marriage. This is why she saves money every day. Inorik only has one account with microfinance institutions and it‟s with Shohoz Shonchoy. Inorik saves 5 taka daily at Shohoz Shonchoy and has no financial debt to her name. During the diaries, her daughter was living intermittently at a distant relative‟s house, as Inorik was afraid of her brothers trying to make her daughter a housemaid without pay. Being virtually excluded from her hostile family, she is therefore forced to look for aid and work in 39.