Introduction

Economists interested in barter and non-monetary exchange often talk at cross-purposes to anthropologists and sociologists. Central to the anthropological literature is the notion of ‘delayed reciprocity’, where barter deals ‘require delays in payment and several exchanges before the transactors are satisfied’ (Humphrey, chapter 3 in this volume). This observation has been a central theme in the anthropology of exchange since Mauss (1990[1954]) and Malinowski (1961), and an important component of this research has focused on the realisation that such exchange requires institutions that persuade people to reciprocate favours. However, traditional monetary economics has largely dealt with cases in which such enforcement issues are absent, either by assuming simultaneous barter or enforceable long-term borrowing and lending contracts. Missing from this literature is the importance of implicit arrangements which are based on trust. The purpose of this chapter is to redress this somewhat, relying on a large, recent literature on self-enforcing contracts, which often examines trade where money is absent. We argue that useful insights on barter can be obtained by using an economic analysis of repeated exchange with little or no money or external enforcement mechanisms, but where trust plays a central role.

This chapter is not meant to provide a holistic view of non-monetary social exchange in general, which involves an array of moral, religious, cultural and economic aspects. Instead, its objective is to address some aspects of repeated exchange which operate in the wild economic environment of Russia.