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market structure and social organization in a Ghanaian marketing system
Author(s) -
SCHWIMMER BRIAN
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1979.6.4.02a00050
Subject(s) - monopolization , competition (biology) , distribution (mathematics) , market structure , social organization , marketing , social system , business , economics , economic geography , industrial organization , market economy , sociology , ecology , social science , mathematical analysis , mathematics , biology , monopoly
Models of market structure, borrowed from industrial organization economists, are employed to analyze the relationship between social organization and economic conditions in a Ghanaian marketing system. Comparative analysis of vegetable, fish, and yam marketing identifies three distinct modes of social organization—pure competition, ethnic monopolization, and associational monopolization — and explains differences in social patterns in terms of underlying supply and distribution structures.