Vicarious Learning and Socio-Economic Transformation in Indian Trans-Himalaya: An evolutionary tale of economic development and policy making

K. Chandrasekhar and Saradindu Bhaduri

Papers on Economics and Evolution from Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography

Abstract: Recently, it has been suggested that the process of economic development should ideally be viewed as a socioeconomic transformation. Such a view requires a comprehensive understanding of how agents learn and change their behaviour. However, these aspects have only been inadequately addressed in development theory. This paper argues that social-cognitive vicarious learning theories can become a useful methodological tool by incorporating a triadic interaction between personal factors (beliefs, values), behaviour and environment. Our analysis is based on a survey of the Indian trans-Himalayan regions. The development trajectory of these regions suggests that a proper understanding of the vicarious learning mechanism provides crucial insight into the speed of socioeconomic transformations. It also helps to identify appropriate change agents within a society and, in turn, underscores the need for a comprehensive, yet flexible, development policy framework.

Keywords: development; socio-economic transformation; vicarious learning; evolution; traditional societies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 33 pages
Date: 2006-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-cwa and nep-evo
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:esi:evopap:2005-18

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