Most of my work has been concerned with the understanding of the role of institutions in economic development, and the processes of institutional change, especially under the joint impact of population growth and market penetration. The influence of non economic factors and various frontier issues at the interface between economics and sociology, are a central focus of my research projects, hence my continuous interest in other social sciences than economics and my continuous emphasis on the potential contributions of sociology to the field of economics in general, and economic development in particular. As a matter of application, my attention has mostly centered on agrarian institutions in developing countries, implying that many of my contributions have a detailed empirical basis, always grounded in original first-hand data collected on the field of several poor economies in Asia and SubSaharan Africa. The most important themes in my research are the following: the determinants of village-level collective action, and the impact of wealth inequality on its level and efficiency (with special reference to the production of local public goods and the management of local natural resources); common property resource management in village societies; informal risk-sharing mechanisms; rules, including inheritance customs, governing access to land and other natural resources, and their transformation under the influence of increasing land pressure; the development and functioning of land markets under the same influence; choice of contracts in artisanal fisheries; systems of marriage payments and their evolution in Africa; the role of social and moral norms in economic development; effectiveness of aid; aid, governance and ‘elite capture’.