Carol H. Shiue

Carol Shiue, assistant professor of economics at the University of Texas, Austin, will examine the role of extended family networks and intergenerational migration patterns in risk-sharing. Recent scholarship has assumed that the increasing influence of market mechanisms in rural economies will erode traditional kinship relationships based on trust and mutual economic dependence, and give rise to financially independent nuclear households. Yet many such networks effectively reposition themselves in response to new market opportunities without disintegrating. Aside from anthropologically informed historical studies, however, no studies have focused on how increasing commercialization and market integration affects the prevalence of informal kinship ties. Using the largest intergenerational data set to have been compiled from Chinese genealogical sources to date, Shiue will model the impact of income shocks and time-to-recovery as well as the relationship between increased market development and residential organization of kinship networks.

Working Papers

• The Rise of Markets in the Western World: A Global Comparison