Changes in adult well-being and economic inequalities : An exploratory observational longitudinal study (2002-2010) of micro-level trends among Tsimane', a small-scale rural society of Indigenous People in the Bolivian Amazon
Godoy, Ricardo (Brandeis University. Heller School for Social Policy and Management)
Bauchet, Jonathan (Purdue University. Department of Agricultural Economics)
Behrman, Jere R. (University of Pennsylvania. Departments of Economics and Sociology)
Huanca, Tomás (Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo Socio-Integral (Bolivia))
Leonard, William R. (Northwestern University. Department of Anthropology)
Reyes-García, Victoria (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals)
Rosinger, Asher (Pennsylvania State University. Department of Anthropology)
Tanner, Susan (University of Georgia. Department of Anthropology)
Undurraga, Eduardo A. (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Escuela de Gobierno)
Zycherman, Ariela (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)

Date:	2024
Abstract:	Knowing what happens over time to the lifeways of people in contemporary small-scale non-industrial societies of the rural Global South matters because it helps assess changes in the quality of life of underrepresented groups. It has been hard to answer the question because longitudinal information is rarely collected in such settings. A longitudinal dataset of nine years (2002-2010) from a horticultural-foraging society of Indigenous People in the Bolivian Amazon (Tsimane') is used for an exploratory analysis of micro-level trends in indicators of well-being and economic inequalities. We selected 13 Tsimane' villages (from ∼ 100) that varied in proximity to town and surveyed all households in each village. ∼ 240 households were followed yearly to estimate trends of 21 outcomes (e. g. , income, sociality, macronutrients). For each economic outcome, annual and all-years-combined Gini coefficients were estimated for the entire sample across the 13 villages. We show a rise in total asset wealth, a change in asset composition (less traditional wealth, more commercial wealth), higher monetary value of foods eaten, and better-perceived health, but a decline in caloric and protein consumption and no marked gender differences in objective or hedonic measures of well-being. Economic inequalities were non-trivial and showed no marked trend but varied between years; asset inequality varied less than income inequality. We document the value of longitudinal, locally grounded indexes of well-being to obtain a granular view of micro-level changes in well-being and the possible use of inequality in the consumption of calories and macronutrients as a valid proxy for income inequality in rural areas of the Global South with tenuous links to the market economy.
Grants:	Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación CEX2019-000940-M
Note:	Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-M
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Panel ; Hedonic ; Nonindustrial society ; Quality of life ; Gini coefficient ; Deprivation
Published in:	World development, Vol. 176 (April 2024) , art. 106518, ISSN 0305-750X

DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2023.106518

22 p, 1.2 MB

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Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles