Polly Hill (economist)

Polly Hill (1914-2005) was a British economic anthropologist and economist known for her pioneering work in West Africa, particularly her studies of cocoa farming in Ghana and palm oil production in Nigeria. She challenged prevailing development economics assumptions by meticulously documenting and analyzing the indigenous economic systems and social structures of West African farmers.

Hill's research methodology emphasized direct observation, participant observation, and detailed surveys of farmers. Her work demonstrated that West African agricultural systems were far more complex, efficient, and dynamic than previously understood by many economists and colonial administrators. She argued against simplistic models of economic development that overlooked the agency and rationality of African farmers.

A key contribution of Hill's work was her critique of the prevailing view that land ownership in West Africa was communal and unchanging. Through her extensive fieldwork, she demonstrated the emergence of individual land ownership and the responsiveness of West African farmers to market incentives.

Her most influential books include The Gold Coast Cocoa Farmer (1956), which detailed the intricacies of cocoa production and trade, and Migrant Cocoa Farmers of Southern Ghana (1963), which examined the social and economic dynamics of migrant labor in the cocoa industry. She also authored Development Economics on Trial: The Anthropological Case for a Prosecution (1986), a critical assessment of development economics that drew heavily on her anthropological insights.

Polly Hill's work had a significant impact on the fields of economic anthropology, development economics, and African studies. Her rigorous empirical research and her focus on the perspectives of local actors provided a valuable corrective to top-down approaches to economic development. She is remembered as a groundbreaking scholar who championed a more nuanced and context-sensitive understanding of economic life in West Africa.