Social Economy and its Contribution to Economic Development in EAC

The Project

At the moment I am certain about what I want to do in my project. I will try to look at the extent to which the social economy can become a tool towards economic development of the East African Community using Kenya and possibly Tanzania as case studies.

I will do this through:

i. Measuring the extent to which the government has failed to provide basic services
ii. Measuring the extent to which the private sector has failed to provide market based solutions
iii. From the gaps generated above, I will then develop a market-service continuum to which I will try to fit the social economy. The effectiveness of the social economic actors will be judged upon their elasticity within the continuum.

How I will do all this:

Evolutionary economics provides one strong tool for this study. It has important theories which will help shape my study as I go along. Computational economics also will also provide a closer solution to my problem. In computational economics I could test my models by manipulating my variables in oder to develop clear intuition to the problems at hand and hence be in a position to come up with better predictions. This however still remains an area to be developed.

The data to be used:

The Kenya Bureau of Statistics census data 1969, 1979, 1989, 1999 and possibly 2009.
Kenya: Ministry of Culture and Social Sevices on CBO's.
Kenya: Ministry of Planning and National development: Reports and plans on development in the country.
WTO: Trade map, Market access map and investment map.
AU: Kenya Peer Review Mechanism Report 2006.
If resources are available, I would love to extend this study o other countries of East Africa.

Output
My ambitious project hopes in the long run to develop causal links between economic development and the social economy in East Africa.

Assistance Needed

Any one with a better idea or suggestion on this is welcome