Problems of transition in a dual economy : the case of Western Samoa

Abstract

This study attempts to explain, with the help of some models, the structural transformation taking place within the economic system of Western Samoa, the interaction of the relevant sectors, and the implications for development at the macro-economic level. It is also concerned with an analysis of subsistence and commercial activities of farm families and the context within which they operate in Western Samoa. Chapter 1 sets out the general background, the problems, the significance and the objectives of the study. In Chapter 2, the economic dualistic approach for the analysis of the development process is discussed. An analysis of the economic system of Western Samoa reveals that economic dualism exists on two levels. At the macro-economic level a distinction is made between the modern monetary sector and the traditional village agricultural sector based on the differences in the conditions of production and distribution within each sector. At the micro-economic level the demarcation of economic dualism is based on the existence, concurrently, of monetary and non-monetary (or subsistence) activities undertaken by subsistence-commercial family farms within the traditional economy. Chapter 3 describes the Samoan traditional society. The Samoan traditional economy which operates within the context of the traditional society is described in Chapter 4. The productive resources, subsistence and market production, and the development and ecnouragement of production for the market by the Government and the response by the farmers to such efforts are discussed. The effects of social organizational institutions on production are then considered along with the subsistence and monetary components of rural household incomes. Chapter 5 describes the development of the various subsectors within the monetary economy, and outlines the Government's policies for their advancement. In Chapter 6, the Lewis model is presented and then used, with modifications of certain of its assumptions, to explain the structural transformation of Western Samoa's economic system and the interactions of the traditional and the monetary economies at the macro-economic level. Models by Fisk and Nakajima are used to analyse the process of transition from subsistence to commercial activities by subsistence-commercial farm families, after suitably defining what constitutes a farm family and a family farm in Western Samoa. Implications for development policy are considered. Chapter 7 establishes the connection between structural transformation of the economic system and food shortages. The primary cause of food shortages is traced to the accelerated shift of labour out of the traditional into the monetary economies, a process which is exacerbated by rising emigration abroad. The need for Western Samoa to produce its own food requirements is justified. The production and marketing structure of staple foods is analysed, specific problems identified and suggestions towards a solution of staple food shortages discussed. Chapter 8 summarizes some conclusions and comments on the nature of economic dualism within the economy of Western Samoa and their implications. It is concluded that the present commodityspecific and country-wide indiscriminate extension and development approach by the Department of Agriculture should be replaced with a whole-farm approach which aims at maximizing the utility of family farms, given their resources and the amount of assistance forthcoming from the Government. Such an approach will lead to a better assessment of the resource-endowment of a farm (a village or a district) which presages the development of specialization as one of the ways by which productivity of both land and labour can be raised. Show more