The local variability of rainfall and tribal institutions: the case of Sudan

This paper develops and tests hypotheses relating the local (spatial) varia bility of rainfall to property rights and the degree of hierarchy in tribal societies. In the presence of local variability of rainfall, the welfare o f tribal members can be enhanced by an institution allowing every member ac cess to all land controlled by the tribe. Greater local variability of rain fall also lowers the degree of hierarchy, both directly and indirectly. Res ults based on historical and ethnographic data from a cross-section of 41 S udanese tribes and meterological data from 168 rainfall stations provide te ntative support for most of the hypotheses. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. JEL classification: 010; N57; P52; Q15; Z1; N47; D7.