6.4 Economy

The sociological view (Polanyi): economies are embedded in social relations — integration through reciprocity (gift and exchange between equals/kin), redistribution (chief/temple/state collects and re-grants) and market exchange — the market being one principle among several, and historically the newest. Nepali economic institutions through that lens: 1. Reciprocity: parma/perma (reciprocal farm-labour exchange), dhikuri/dhukuti (rotating credit associations — trust as banking), festive feasting obligations (bhoj). 2. Redistribution: the historic state (jagir/birta allocations — see Nepali History Unit 5), temple- guthi land, and today the fiscal-federal state: revenue sharing, equalisation grants, social allowances (the old-age allowance's nationwide circuit). 3. Market: the bazaar network; the 1990s liberalization; remittance-driven consumer demand; land increasingly a market asset rather than a status patrimony. 4. The contemporary structure: an overwhelmingly informal economy; agriculture employing a shrinking but still large share; remittances around a quarter of GDP (Unit 7.1); cooperatives promoted as a "third pillar" (the Cooperative Act 2074 (2017)) — with the cooperative-governance scandals as a live case of trust-institutions meeting weak regulation; a large state-owned enterprise legacy; organised labour under the Labour Act 2074 (2017). Law-student's line: every one of these institutions has a legal silhouette — tenancy law, cooperative law, labour law, foreign-employment law; economic sociology is where "transaction costs" meet parma parties.