Monetization: A theory and applications

Chapter 1 introduces the topic. In Chapter 2, I present a review of the theoretical work on monetization and money. This chapter identifies the classic schools of thought on what monetization is and combines these with recent interdisciplinary scholarship to produce a theory of monetization for the 21st Century. It is shown that this theory provides improved explanatory power and generates many more interesting avenues for further research than the current theories. The major contribution of this chapter is a new theory of monetization that builds on the work of classic sociology, economics, and anthropology. Chapter 3 extends the theoretical work of Chapter 2 to connect it with familiar sociological literatures describing exchange, social networks, and trust. It highlights the importance these factors for understanding monetization as institutional change. It compares this enhanced theoretical understanding to simpler economic models typically employed and demonstrates that the social network interpretation of monetization out-performs the simpler economic labor supply and demand explanation. Basic correlation analysis is used to support the empirical propositions, and a discussion of the unique challenges to studying monetization empirically is provided. The major conclusion of this chapter is that social network position is closely related to the degree of labor monetization among rural households in a transitional economy. Chapter 4 is unique in treating monetization as an outcome variable and exploring the basic demographic, economic, and agricultural factors that predict this transition in a transaction common to many world economies: the exchange of agricultural labor. It uses data from Nang Rong District, Thailand to demonstrate that many of these factors are related to agricultural participation and labor monetization in opposite ways, suggesting an antagonism between labor monetization and traditional agriculture. Utilizing the longitudinal character of the data, the greater degree of monetization observed at a later time period is shown to be a response to changes in the structural parameters of the model, while declining agricultural participation is better explained by the shifting composition of the population through common demographic processes like population aging. Chapter 5 summarizes the findings, draws connections, and suggests directions for future study.