Jean E. Ensminger
Edie and Lew Wasserman Professor of Social Sciences
| Mail Code: | MC 228-77 |
| Office: | 202 Baxter Hall |
| Phone: | 626-395-4541 |
| Email: | jensming@hss.caltech.edu |
B.A., Cornell University, 1974; M.A., Northwestern University, 1976; Ph.D., 1984. Professor of Anthropology, Caltech, 2000-07; Chair, Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, 2002-06; Wasserman Professor, 2007-.
Research Interests
Corruption; Experimental Economics; Political Economy of Development; Sub-Saharan Africa; New Institutional Economics
RESEARCH AREAS
Experimental Social Science; Political Economy; Political Science; Social Science History
PROFILE
Jean Ensminger is known for her work in the political economy of Africa. Her research sits at the interface of anthropology, economics, political science, and development, and she has conducted several decades of research in one African society (Making a Market: The Institutional Transformation of an African Society, Cambridge University Press). Her early work in the political economy of development used insights from new institutional economics and analyzed property rights, transaction costs, principal–agent relations, and the relationship between economic incentives and a range of social and economic behaviors.
During the past decade, Ensminger was co–principal investigator, with Joseph Henrich, of the Roots of Human Sociality Project, which used economic experiments in small-scale societies around the world to understand the coevolution of market institutions and pro-social norms of fairness, trust, cooperation, and norm enforcement. This work appeared in Science (2006 and 2010) and in two volumes, the most recent of which was published in 2014 (Experimenting with Social Norms: Fairness and Punishment in Cross-Cultural Perspective, Russell Sage Foundation).
Ensminger's current research focuses on corruption in development, including aid and the role of political decentralization.
Ensminger taught for many years at Washington University in St. Louis before moving to Caltech in 2000. She is a past president of the Society for Economic Anthropology and served as chair of the Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences at Caltech from 2002 to 2006. In 2006–2007 she was a visiting scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation, and in 2011 she was a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship recipient.
Selected Awards
2011-2012 John Simon Guggenheim Fellow
2006-2007 Visiting Scholar, Russell Sage Foundation
Selected Publications
- Ensminger, Jean and Joseph Henrich, eds.
2014 Experimenting with Social Norms: Fairness and Punishment in Cross-Cultural Perspective. New York: The Russell Sage Foundation Press.
- Ensminger, Jean and Joseph Henrich
2014 Introduction, Project History, and Guide to the Volume (Chapter 1). In: Experimenting with Social Norms: Fairness and Punishment in Cross-Cultural Perspective. Jean Ensminger and Joseph Henrich, eds. New York: The Russell Sage Foundation Press.
- Henrich, Joseph and Jean Ensminger
2014 Theoretical Foundations: The Coevolution of Social Norms, Intrinsic Motivation, Markets, and the Institutions of Complex Societies (Chapter 2). In: Experimenting with Social Norms: Fairness and Punishment in Cross-Cultural Perspective. Jean Ensminger and Joseph Henrich, eds. New York: The Russell Sage Foundation Press.
- Ensminger, Jean, Abigail Barr, and Joseph Henrich
2014 Cross-Cultural Experimental Methods, Sites, and Variables (Chapter 3). In: Experimenting with Social Norms: Fairness and Punishment in Cross-Cultural Perspective. Jean Ensminger and Joseph Henrich, eds. New York: The Russell Sage Foundation Press.
- Henrich, Joseph, Jean Ensminger, Abigail Barr, and Richard McElreath
2014 Major Empirical Results: Markets, Religion, Community Size and the Evolution of Fairness and Punishment (Chapter 4). In: Experimenting with Social Norms: Fairness and Punishment in Cross-Cultural Perspective. Jean Ensminger and Joseph Henrich, eds. New York: The Russell Sage Foundation Press.
- Lesorogol, Carolyn and Jean Ensminger
2014 Double-Blind Dictator Games in Africa and the United States: Differential Experimenter Effects (Chapter 5). In: Experimenting with Social Norms: Fairness and Punishment in Cross-Cultural Perspective. Jean Ensminger and Joseph Henrich, eds. New York: The Russell Sage Foundation Press.
- Ensminger, Jean and Kathleen Cook
2014 Pro-Sociality in Rural America: Evidence from Dictator, Ultimatum, Public Goods, and Trust Games (Chapter 18). In: Experimenting with Social Norms: Fairness and Punishment in Cross-Cultural Perspective. Jean Ensminger and Joseph Henrich, eds. New York: The Russell Sage Foundation Press.
- Henrich, Joseph, Robert Boyd, Richard McElreath, Michael Gurven, Peter J. Richerson, Jean Ensminger, Michael Alvard, Abigail Barr, Clark Barrett, Alexander Bolyantz, Colin F. Camerer, Juan-Camilo Cardenas, Ernst Fehr, Herbert M. Gintis, Francisco Gil-White, Edwins Laban Gwako, Natalie Henrich, Kim Hill, Carolyn Lesorogol, John Q. Patton, Frank W. Marlowe, David P. Tracer, and John Ziker
2012 Culture Does Account for Variation in Game Behavior. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 109(2): E32-33.
- Henrich, Joseph, Jean Ensminger, Richard McElreath, Abigail Barr, Clark Barrett, Alexander Bolyanatz, Juan Camilo Cardenas, Michael Gurven, Edwins Gwako, Natalie Henrich, Carolyn Lesorogol, Frank Marlowe, David Tracer, and John Ziker
2010 Markets, Religion, Community Size and the Evolution of Fairness and Punishment. Science. March 327: 1480-1484.
- Barr, Abigail, Jean Ensminger, and Jeffrey C. Johnson
2010 Social Networks and Trust: Results from Cross-Cultural Economic Experiments. Chapter 3 in: Who Can We Trust: How Groups, Networks, and Institutions make Trust Possible. Karen S. Cook, Margaret Levi, and Russell Hardin, eds. Pp. 65-90. New York: Russell Sage Foundation Press.
- Marlowe, F.W., J.C. Berbesque, A. Barr, A., C. Barrett, A. Bolyanatz, J. C. Cardenas, J. Ensminger, M. Gurven, E. Gwako, J. Henrich, N. Henrich, C. Lesorogol, R. McElreath, D. Tracer
2008 More 'altruistic' punishment in larger societies. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Biology. 274: 587-590.
- Henrich, Joseph, Richard McElreath, Abigail Barr, Jean Ensminger, Clark Barrett, Alexander Bolyanatz, Juan Camilo Cardenas, Michael Gurven, Edwins Gwako, Natalie Henrich, Carolyn Lesorogol, Frank Marlowe, David Tracer, and John Ziker
2006 Costly Punishment Across Human Societies. Science. June 312(23): 1767-1770.
- Henrich, Joseph, Robert Boyd, Samuel Bowles, Colin Camerer, Ernst Fehr, Herbert Gintis, Richard McElreath, Michael Alvard, Abigail Barr, Jean Ensminger, Natalie Smith Henrich, Kim Hill, Francisco Gil-White, Michael Gurven, Frank Marlowe, John Q. Patton, and David Tracer
2005 'Economic Man' in Cross-cultural Perspective: Behavioral Experiments in 15 Small-scale Societies. The Behavioral and Brain Sciences Dec 28(6):795-815; discussion 815-855.
- Echkel, Catherine, Melayne Morgan McInnes, Sara Solnick, Jean Ensminger, Roland Fryer, Ronald Heiner, Gavin Samms, Katri Sieberg, and Rick Wilson
2005 Bobbing for Widgets: Compensating Wage Differentials. The Journal of Economic Education 36(2): 129-138.
- Ensminger, Jean
2004 Market Integration and Fairness: Evidence from Ultimatum, Dictator, and Public Goods Experiments in East Africa. Chapter 12 in: Foundations of Human Sociality: Economic Experiments and Ethnographic Evidence from Fifteen Small-Scale Societies, Henrich, Joseph, Robert Boyd, Samuel Bowles, Colin Camerer, Ernst Fehr, and Herbert Gintis, editors. London: Oxford University press.
- Ensminger, Jean, ed.
2002 Theory in Economic Anthropology. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press.
- Ensminger, Jean
2002 Experimental Economics in the Bush. Engineering and Science LXV: 2.
- Ensminger, Jean
2002 Experimental Economics: A Powerful New Tool for Theory Testing in Anthropology. Chapter 3 in: Theory in Economic Anthropology. Jean Ensminger, ed. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press.
- Ensminger, Jean
2002 Introduction: Theory in Economic Anthropology at the Turn of the Century. Chapter 1 in: Theory in Economic Anthropology. Jean Ensminger, ed. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press.
- Ensminger, Jean
2001 Reputations, Trust, and the Principal Agent Problem. Chapter 6 in: Trust and Society. Karen Cook, ed. Pp. 185-201. New York, New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
- Ensminger, Jean
2000 Experimental Economics in the Bush: How Institutions Matter. Chapter 13 in: Institutions and Organizations, Claude Menard, ed. London: Edward Elgar.
- Ensminger, Jean
1998 Anthropology and the New Institutionalism. Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics 154(4):774-789.
- Knight, Jack and Jean Ensminger
1998 Conflict over Changing Social Norms. Chapter 5 in: The New Institutionalism in Economic Sociology. Mary Brinton and Victor Nee, eds. Pp. 105-126. New York, New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
- Ensminger, Jean
1997 Transaction Costs and Islam: Explaining Conversion in Africa. Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics 152(1):4-29.
- Ensminger, Jean and Jack Knight
1997 Changing Social Norms: Common Property, Bridewealth, and Clan Exogamy (with CA comment). Current Anthropology 38(1)1-24.
- Ensminger, Jean
1997 Changing Property Rights: Reconciling Formal and Informal Rights to Land in Africa. Chapter 8 in: The Frontiers of the New Institutional Economics, John N. Drobak and John V.C. Nye, eds. Pp. 165-198. New York, New York: Academic Press.
- Ensminger, Jean
1996 Culture and Property Rights. Chapter 9 in: Rights to Nature, Susan Hanna, Carl Folke, and Karl-Goran Maler, eds. Pp. 179-203. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.
- Ensminger, Jean
1994 The Political Economy of Religion: An Economic Anthropologist's Perspective. Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics. 150(4): 745-754.
- Ensminger, Jean
1994 Transaction Costs Through Time: The Case of Orma Pastoralists of East Africa. In Anthropology and Institutional Economics. James Acheson, ed. Pp. 69-86. New York: University Press of America.
- Ensminger, Jean and Andrew Rutten
1993 The Politics of Changing Property Rights: Dismantling a Commons from Within. Reprinted in The Political Economy of Customs and Cultures: Informal Solutions to the Commons Problem. Terry Anderson and Randy Simmons, eds. Pp. 85-108. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
- Ensminger, Jean
1992 Making a Market: The Institutional Transformation of an African Society. New York: Cambridge University Press.
- Ensminger, Jean and Andrew Rutten
1991 The Political Economy of Changing Property Rights: Dismantling a Pastoral Commons. American Ethnologist 18(4):683-699.
- Ensminger, Jean
1991 Structural Transformation and Its Impact upon Orma Women Pastoralists. Chapter 12 in: Structural Adjustment and African Women Farmers. Christina Gladwin, ed. Pp. 281-300. Gainesville, Florida: University of Florida Press.
- Ensminger, Jean
1990 Co-Opting the Elders: The Political Economy of State Incorporation in Africa. American Anthropologist 92(3):662-675.
- Ensminger, Jean
1987 Economic and Political Differentiation Among Galole Orma Women. Ethnos 52(1-2):28-49.
- Barnes, Carolyn, Jean Ensminger, Philip O'Keefe, eds.
1985 Wood, Energy and Households: Perspectives on Rural Kenya. Stockholm: The Beijer Institute and the Scandinavian Institute of African Studies.
- Barnes, Carolyn and Jean Ensminger
1985 Introduction. In Wood, Energy and Households: Perspectives on Rural Kenya. C. Barnes, J. Ensminger, and P. O'Keefe, eds. Pp. 1-13. Stockholm: The Beijer Institute and The Scandinavian Institute of African Studies.
- Ensminger, Jean
1985 Monetization of the Galole Orma Economy: Changes in the Use of Fuel and Woodstock. In Wood, Energy and Households: Perspectives on Rural Kenya. C. Barnes, J. Ensminger, and P. O'Keefe, eds. Pp. 124-140. Stockholm: The Beijer Institute and The Scandinavian Institute of African Studies.
- Ensminger, Jean
1984 Theoretical Perspectives on Pastoral Women: Feminist Critiques. Nomadic Peoples Number 16: 59-71.
- Leakey, L.S.B.
1977 The Southern Kikuyu Before 1903 (Volumes I-III). G. Beecher and J. Ensminger, eds. London: Academic Press.
Manuscripts Under Review or in Complete Draft
- Ensminger, Jean
Inside Corruption Networks: Following the Money in Community Driven Development.
- Abigail Barr, Chris Wallace, Jean Ensminger, Joseph Henrich, Clark Barrett, Alexander Boyanatz, Juan Camilo Cardenas, Michael Gurven, Edwins Gwako, Carolyn Lesorogol, Frank Marlowe, Richard McElreath, David Tracer, and John Ziker.
Homo Æqualis: A Cross-Society Experimental Analysis of Three Bargaining Games. Revise and resubmit at Quarterly Journal of Economics.