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The purpose of this paper is to assess whether a difference or mismatch between individual political ideology and predominant political views in society is a significant determinant of the intention to migrate in Latin American countries.

The authors use data from the 2018 Latinobarómetro Survey and conduct logit regressions using intention to migrate as the dependent variable and political ideology mismatch as the independent variable. The authors control for a large set of demographic, economic, and social variables. The authors also conduct Propensity Score Matching to control for potential endogenous effects produced by observable characteristics as well as a commonly used sensitivity analysis known as Rosenbaum's bounding approach.

The authors find that political ideology mismatch is a significant determinant of the intention to migrate in Latin American countries but not symmetrically. The authors find that positioning to the right of predominant views in society is associated with voicing an intention to migrate, but positioning to the left of those views is not.

Not much has been said about the role of individual political ideology as a push migrating factor. The paper contributes to fill that gap. The paper also contributes to the discussion about the political ideology of Latin American immigrants and how that ideology may have an effect on internal politics in the host countries.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-01-2022-0028.

The goal of this paper is to study the factors that determine individuals' beliefs about robots in Latin America. The authors highlight the role of interpersonal trust in shaping these beliefs.

The authors use data from 2018 Latinobarómetro survey in 18 Latin American countries. The analysis includes an empirical strategy that reduces overt bias and weighs hidden bias.

Robots are not generally supported or positively perceived in Latin America. However, people are less negative about robots when they (1) trust others, (2) are male, (3) are single, (4) are more educated, (5) support democracy and (6) favor free imports. Interpersonal trust is the most consistent covariate. The results provide support to the idea that trusting robots can be the result of trusting humans working in the technological sector (Coeckelbergh, 2012).

This study faces some limitations. The first one relates to the standard caveats associated with the use of survey data – interviewees may not express their true beliefs. Another limitation is that this study examines data for only one year (the 2018 Latinobarómetro survey). Finally, although propensity score matching allow to control for endogeneity due to observable characteristics and the authors perform a sensitivity test regarding hidden characteristics, the nature of the data does not allow to guarantee that there is a causal effect from interpersonal trust to beliefs about robots.

The authors find that the positive relationship between trust and beliefs about robots is particularly strong in the area of health. Medical companies could consider these findings when designing and promoting robots.

Negative views about robots may delay the adoption of new technology in the region. To facilitate the adoption of new technologies, stakeholders should pay attention to the prevalent levels of interpersonal trust in society. This is especially important in developing countries.

To the authors’ knowledge this is the first study that empirically links beliefs about robots and interpersonal trust.

Do business owners hold capitalist beliefs – relative to non-business owners? Using Latinobarómetro survey in Latin America, we find that business owners tend to see the market economy as the only system by which a country can become developed. They also tend to give a lower rank to Fidel Castro, and tend to believe that sole private investment in sectors like hospitals and pensions are good for the country to develop as soon as possible. But, business owners do not see foreign capital as good in industries such as mining, electronics, household appliances, automobile, telecommunication services, and infrastructure. They also do not see foreign investment as beneficial for economic development of the country. In addition, they are less willing to adopt some new technologies.

This chapter claims that the La Chamba community in central Colombia exhibits some characteristics of Schumpeter's (1949) concept of economic development. This case is important because it represents several mestizo communities in Latin America, which are deeply involved in domestic and international craft markets. The market economy penetrates the ceramic community of La Chamba, fostering technological change, improving economic development (as Schumpeter defines it), and creating economic differences across households.

Purpose – Generally speaking this chapter examines if Max Weber's theory of the protestant ethic helps explain socioeconomic progress currently seen in some communities in Latin America where Protestantism has advanced rapidly.

Methodology/approach – This chapter is a case study. It reviews the literature on San Pedro de Almolonga, a small indigenous town in western Guatemala, and presents the results of our ethnographic fieldwork in the town and its surroundings during January 2011.

Findings – Almolonga has become a very prosperous town through the production and commercialization of vegetables. Prosperity has emerged due to the high fertility of the soil, the entrepreneurial skills of its inhabitants, and the high market demand for vegetables. Protestantism has been an almost perfect complement that has made possible the maximization of Almolonga's economic potential.

This chapter claims that there are characteristics of the institutional structure of some indigenous societies that in some cases prevent economic development by complicating the emergence of extra-family networks (social capital), and the transition from personal to impersonal exchange; this is illustrated in the context of the Wayúu people from the Guajira Peninsula of Colombia. They have a strong tradition of craft production, which has changed much in recent years due to exigencies of Wayúu and non-Wayúu consumers. Foreign elements, such as commercial brands, are commonly included today in their traditional crafts, sometimes even replacing conventional motifs. However, artisans behave strategically – selling different designs to different markets. The main economic difficulties of the Wayúu artisans are related to the lack of commercialization of their products. From an institutional analysis perspective, the absence of extra-family social and commercial networks in locations relatively far from markets, it is argued, is one of the factors explaining these problems. It is suggested also that the promotion of cooperatives should be attempted from the bottom-up given the particular legal characteristics of this society.

Those who know it, believe it

Those who don’t know it, don’t believe it

We who know, believe it

– Old Wayúu proverb

This thirty-second volume in the REA series represents a joint effort between two former students of Norbert Dannhaeuser, who edited REA together with his colleague Cynthia Werner from 2001 to 2005, and who served as the chair of both Donald's and Ty's M.A. thesis committees at Texas A&M University. Norbert also was chair of Ty's Ph.D. committee. Donald was just settling on Japan as his geographic focus in anthropology around 1993, and although this was not Norbert's specialty he was very familiar with the canon of postwar Japanese village studies. Introducing Donald to this body of work had a tremendous influence on his academic development and his future path. Prior to this more intensive and focused guidance, however, it was taking Norbert's core Anthropological Theory (ANTH 410) course at Texas A&M in the autumn term of 1992 – exactly 20 years ago – that convinced Donald to commit himself to a career in anthropology in the first place. Similarly, Ty's career development as an anthropologist owes a considerable debt to Norbert. The knowledge acquired from him both in the field (the Philippines) and classroom (Texas A&M University) has proven indispensable in influencing Ty's geographical and topical focus. Both of us would like to take this opportunity to thank Norbert for all of his guidance and encouragement. We humbly dedicate this volume of REA to him in honor of all of his contributions to the field of anthropology, and also out of gratitude for his support when we were just starting out.

This 30th volume of “Research in Economic Anthropology” (REA) consists of 13 original chapters focusing on various aspects of economic organization and behavior, most of which are based on empirical fieldwork conducted by the respective authors themselves. The volume has three parts. Chapters in Part I focus on development and inequalities – common and important themes in economic anthropology. Part II, in concentrating on market expansion and marketing in general, continues the theme of Part II of Volume 25 in the REA series (Wood, 2007, pp. 4–7). The final section – Part III – consists of three chapters that are concerned with economic activities and group or individual identity. The volume ends with a review by James R. Stanfield of a new book about the continuing relevance of Karl Polanyi's famous 1944 book, The Great Transformation, edited by Chris Hann and Keith Hart.