How Can NIE Inform Sustainable Livelihoods Analysis and Actions? 2.1 NIE and Livelihoods Analysis

How can New Institutional Economics help in sustainable livelihoods development, in analysis and action? We consider first how NIE analysis can help in developing an understanding of particular livelihoods, and then how it can be used to identify potential ‘entry points’ for outside intervention. A major potential contribution for NIE is to promote a more nuanced application of economic analysis in livelihood analysis, providing a common link in understanding for economists and for other social scientists sceptical of traditional economics’ sometimes naïve emphasis on markets. For natural scientists, NIE can provide a more holistic context in which to understand technological development and adoption.

An understanding of NIE can help livelihoods analysis in two ways:

• by drawing attention to important livelihood components and to useful questions to ask, and
• by drawing attention to particular ways that institutions affect the relationships between livelihood components – both within the micro scale of analysis, and within and linking meso and macro scales of analysis.

We now consider the application of such NIE insights to each of the major livelihoods components.