Scale Dependency and the Marginal Value of Labor

While there is a general assumption that labor has a positive effect on pastoral production, studies that have tried to quantify this relationship have found no effects. This is most likely because these studies have been looking for effects only at the household level of social organization, although it is well documented that nomadic pastoralist households share and exchange labor in so-called cooperative herding groups. This study investigates possible labor related effects on production among Saami reindeer herders in northern Norway and whether these effects are scale dependent. Contrary to previous studies, we found both a general effect of labor on Saami reindeer husbandry production and the presence of a scale dependent effect, i.e., the more robust results were found on the level of social organization where cooperative herding is undertaken.