Drini Imami
Biographic Data
| ID | 388725 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Drini Imami |
| GIVEN NAMES | Drini |
| FAMILY NAME | Imami |
| SIGNATURE | IMAMI D |
| AFFILIATIONS | Agricultural University of Tirana |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4716-792X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 26 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 21 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 26 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
When Services Matter: Rethinking Farmer Cooperation in an Export-Oriented Smallholder Setting
Why does agricultural cooperation remain fragile in post-socialist settings, despite its potential to reduce transaction costs and improve market access? Explanations usually stress institutional voids and the legacy of distrust. This paper advances a different view: farmers cooperate when the services offered are economically salient. Adapting Ostrom’s SES framework, we reinterpret “resource importance” for club goods, specifically cooperation s…
Political budget cycle – does participation in IMF programs matter
Profiling consumer olive oil preferences: Shopping behaviours, health orientations and green values
Purpose Despite the cultural and nutritional importance of olive oil in Mediterranean diets, consumer preferences in emerging, nontraditional markets remain underexamined. Existing research has largely prioritized sensory qualities, certification schemes and price sensitivity, often neglecting the broader cultural and systemic drivers of food choice – such as sustainability concerns and health-oriented values. This study examines the influence of…
Electoral democracy, corruption, and tax evasion
A key challenge of developing and emerging economies is establishing effective tax systems, as fiscal capacity is essential for state building and economic growth. This study examines the relationship between electoral democracy, public sector corruption, and tax evasion through trade misinvoicing, using data from 53 developing and emerging economies to explore how political and institutional factors shape tax evasion. The analysis reveals a posi…
Why Elections Prompt More Corruption, Clientelism, and Forbearance? A Study of Attitudes in Albania, Kosovo, and North Macedonia
Corruption is often defined as the abuse of public functions for private gain, but research has expanded this view to include clientelism and forbearance, particularly in neo-patrimonial contexts. While forbearance has been widely studied, it remains largely unexplored in Southeastern Europe, where corruption is often oversimplified. This article innovatively combines forbearance, electoral corruption, and clientelism to analyse tax authorities' …
The Effect of Food and Financial Remittances on Household Food Security in Northern Nigeria
Remittances from migrants are an important livelihood strategy to mitigate the impact of adverse economic conditions, particularly in developing countries and rural areas. This study examines how migration and remittances affect household food security by analyzing data collected from 180 farmers in northern Nigeria in 2018. The descriptive results show that households use remittances mainly for health care and education. Remittances are most com…
What explains collective action: The impact of social capital, incentive structures and economic benefits
This study focuses in testing the power of reciprocity and leadership as collective action incentive structures and cooperation economic benefits in explaining collective action initiation in the context of a post‐communist transition economy. The paper is based on a structured survey targeting Albanian export‐oriented farmers. Different from most previous studies, this paper uses both regression analysis and machine learning procedure which is b…
Impact of cigarette price and tobacco control policies on youth smoking experimentation in Albania
Price is a significant predictor of smoking experimentation among teenagers in Albania for both males and females. A combination of increasing taxes and strengthening the rule of law to control tobacco use in public spaces, in addition to public awareness campaigns targeting both youth and smoking parents, could help to significantly reduce the probability of smoking experimentation
Access to Food vs. Education - Feeding the Stomach is Important for Feeding the Mind
A school feeding program (SFP) influences school attendance and performance because better nutrition by default implies better physical and mental performance. SFP is an important motivation to attend school, especially in an area of extreme poverty and food insecurity. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of SFP on school attendance of students in the North-Eastern region of Nigeria, based on data from a cross-sectional compara…
The blatant phenomenon of 'election-driven legalization of informality
Informal construction has been rife in Albanian cities since the fall of communism in 1990. This study investigates the fluctuations in the housing legalization process in conjunction with national and local elections in Albania from 2008 to 2021. Government revenues from legalization fees are used as a proxy for the pace of the legalization process. The key finding is that the legalization of informal buildings intensifies prior to an election a…
Active political engagement, political patronage and local labour markets – The example of Shkoder
Purpose This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of the effects of active political engagement in port-of-entry jobs and employment pathways for graduate students in a post-communist context which is characterized by clientelism. The data are derived from a structured survey of a small local labour market where political clientelism is pronounced due to the strong network ties. Controlling for both demand and supply factors, the authors…
Opportunistic privatization
The Evolution of Village (Self)Governance in the Context of Post‐Communist Rural Society
The role of the village headman and council of elders is very important in many societies. The focus of this article is to analyse the evolution and the role of the (informal) intermediary institutions and actors in the context of changing society’s patterns and political landscape transformations. This article focuses on Albania and Kosovo, where village self-governing mechanisms played a crucial role in avoiding (often deadly) social conflicts …
Fruit-related lifestyles as a segmentation tool for fruit consumers
Purpose This study develops a modified food-related lifestyle (FRL) instrument to analyse Kosovo consumers' fruit consumption behaviour and attitudes. Design/methodology/approach The research study is based on a structured questionnaire designed using a reduced version of the FRL instrument, including evaluation factors related to fruit consumption, which is useful to describe a fruit-related lifestyle. Data were collected through a face-to-face …
Electoral Politics of Disaster: How earthquake and pandemic relief was used to earn votes
Disasters can be good for incumbent governments. Amidst an emergency, budgets can be revised and reallocated in a hurry, framing the government as a ‘saviour,’ issuing contracts to the government’s business clientele and/or prioritising the electoral base more than the victims. Thus elected officials can curry favour with voters and increase their chances of retaining their seats. We examine this claim in the context of Albania, a middle-income c…
Unlanded Class: Albania's Gender Gaps in Land Ownership and Inheritance
This study investigates gender gaps in access to land ownership and land inheritance in Albanian rural areas by combining a large-scale survey and five in-depth focus groups discussions. The article considers three sets of variables: place-based characteristics; family characteristics; and individual characteristics. Results find that rural societies lack awareness around legal property rights, undermine the confidence of women in myriad ways, an…
Informal construction as political currency: A theory of ‘election-driven informality’
Willingness to cooperate in the context of post-communist economy – Why do local rules matter
Food Safety and Value Chain Coordination in the Context of a Transition Economy: The Role of Agricultural Cooperatives
In Albania development gaps in the area of food safety are calling for stronger vertical coordination within the agrifood value chains. The paper explores the possibility of vertical coordination being strengthened through the development of agricultural cooperatives and informal farmer groups. In two reported case studies, these organizations have been shown to be called into life by the need to advance vertical coordination. Moreover, the case …
Agriculture land markets in transition - The inherited challenge of the post-communist land reform in Albania
Feminisation in Agriculture in a Transition Economy: Women's Role in Family Farms
Research on gender equality for several decades has observed gender roles as related to decisions, asset availability, and bargaining power. Literature examining the influence of intra-family bargaining power and rights on farm structures is scarce. This article builds on the feminisation thesis for exploring how feminisation in agriculture has been changing women's agency in family farms. It analyses the effect of farming decision-making in farm…
Analysis of Tobacco Price Elasticity in Albania Using Household Level Data
This paper analyzes the determinant factors of tobacco consumption in Albania, which is one of the countries with the highest smoking prevalence in Europe. To empirically estimate the elasticity of cigarettes demand in Albania, the paper uses the Living Standard Measurement Survey (LSMS) applying Deaton’s (1988) demand model. This paper estimates an Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS), which allows disentangling quality choice from exogenous price …
Local Government Access to Funds—It Is about Who Your Friends and Party Are
The competitive grants schemes, a financing mechanism established for achieving social welfare as well as balanced and efficient territorial development, would have to be applied through a transparent and objective competition process. However, political influence of the ruling party and informal networks with central government decision-makers may influence access to competitive grants. This paper explores the extent to which the political affil…
Corruption in Education during Socialism and the Postsocialist Transition: The Case of Albania
Region: Regional Studies of Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia - Volume 7, Number 2, July 2018
Fiscal Decentralization in Albania: Trends and Challenges at the Dawn of Territorial Reform
Decentralization reforms in Albania started very late compared with other countries of the Western Balkans. Only in early the 2000s were important fiscal decentralization reforms undertaken in Albania. The objective of this paper is to analyse the evolution of decentralization in terms of its legal and institutional paths, with a focus on the governance of intergovernmental transfers. Local government in Albania has inherited a fragmented legal f…
Looking at the ‘sharing’ economies concept through the prism of informality
How do the ‘sharing economies’ relate to the long history of informal economic practices as understood in the social sciences? This article examines conceptions of the sharing economy in terms of its relation to scholarship on informality. By using two case studies of informal economic practices that originated in socialist-era societies and continue to the present day in modified forms, we critique the notion that sharing economies are significa…
Electoral Politics of Disaster: How earthquake and pandemic relief was used to earn votes
Disasters can be good for incumbent governments. Amidst an emergency, budgets can be revised and reallocated in a hurry, framing the government as a ‘saviour,’ issuing contracts to the government’s business clientele and/or prioritising the electoral base more than the victims. Thus elected officials can curry favour with voters and increase their chances of retaining their seats. We examine this claim in the context of Albania, a middle-income c…
Unlanded Class: Albania's Gender Gaps in Land Ownership and Inheritance
This study investigates gender gaps in access to land ownership and land inheritance in Albanian rural areas by combining a large-scale survey and five in-depth focus groups discussions. The article considers three sets of variables: place-based characteristics; family characteristics; and individual characteristics. Results find that rural societies lack awareness around legal property rights, undermine the confidence of women in myriad ways, an…
Informal construction as political currency: A theory of ‘election-driven informality’
Agriculture land markets in transition - The inherited challenge of the post-communist land reform in Albania
Feminisation in Agriculture in a Transition Economy: Women's Role in Family Farms
Research on gender equality for several decades has observed gender roles as related to decisions, asset availability, and bargaining power. Literature examining the influence of intra-family bargaining power and rights on farm structures is scarce. This article builds on the feminisation thesis for exploring how feminisation in agriculture has been changing women's agency in family farms. It analyses the effect of farming decision-making in farm…
Why Elections Prompt More Corruption, Clientelism, and Forbearance? A Study of Attitudes in Albania, Kosovo, and North Macedonia
Corruption is often defined as the abuse of public functions for private gain, but research has expanded this view to include clientelism and forbearance, particularly in neo-patrimonial contexts. While forbearance has been widely studied, it remains largely unexplored in Southeastern Europe, where corruption is often oversimplified. This article innovatively combines forbearance, electoral corruption, and clientelism to analyse tax authorities' …
The blatant phenomenon of 'election-driven legalization of informality
Informal construction has been rife in Albanian cities since the fall of communism in 1990. This study investigates the fluctuations in the housing legalization process in conjunction with national and local elections in Albania from 2008 to 2021. Government revenues from legalization fees are used as a proxy for the pace of the legalization process. The key finding is that the legalization of informal buildings intensifies prior to an election a…
Food Safety and Value Chain Coordination in the Context of a Transition Economy: The Role of Agricultural Cooperatives
In Albania development gaps in the area of food safety are calling for stronger vertical coordination within the agrifood value chains. The paper explores the possibility of vertical coordination being strengthened through the development of agricultural cooperatives and informal farmer groups. In two reported case studies, these organizations have been shown to be called into life by the need to advance vertical coordination. Moreover, the case …
Looking at the ‘sharing’ economies concept through the prism of informality
How do the ‘sharing economies’ relate to the long history of informal economic practices as understood in the social sciences? This article examines conceptions of the sharing economy in terms of its relation to scholarship on informality. By using two case studies of informal economic practices that originated in socialist-era societies and continue to the present day in modified forms, we critique the notion that sharing economies are significa…
Fiscal Decentralization in Albania: Trends and Challenges at the Dawn of Territorial Reform
Decentralization reforms in Albania started very late compared with other countries of the Western Balkans. Only in early the 2000s were important fiscal decentralization reforms undertaken in Albania. The objective of this paper is to analyse the evolution of decentralization in terms of its legal and institutional paths, with a focus on the governance of intergovernmental transfers. Local government in Albania has inherited a fragmented legal f…
Corruption in Education during Socialism and the Postsocialist Transition: The Case of Albania
Region: Regional Studies of Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia - Volume 7, Number 2, July 2018
Analysis of Tobacco Price Elasticity in Albania Using Household Level Data
This paper analyzes the determinant factors of tobacco consumption in Albania, which is one of the countries with the highest smoking prevalence in Europe. To empirically estimate the elasticity of cigarettes demand in Albania, the paper uses the Living Standard Measurement Survey (LSMS) applying Deaton’s (1988) demand model. This paper estimates an Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS), which allows disentangling quality choice from exogenous price …
Local Government Access to Funds—It Is about Who Your Friends and Party Are
The competitive grants schemes, a financing mechanism established for achieving social welfare as well as balanced and efficient territorial development, would have to be applied through a transparent and objective competition process. However, political influence of the ruling party and informal networks with central government decision-makers may influence access to competitive grants. This paper explores the extent to which the political affil…
Willingness to cooperate in the context of post-communist economy – Why do local rules matter
Food Safety and Value Chain Coordination in the Context of a Transition Economy: The Role of Agricultural Cooperatives
In Albania development gaps in the area of food safety are calling for stronger vertical coordination within the agrifood value chains. The paper explores the possibility of vertical coordination being strengthened through the development of agricultural cooperatives and informal farmer groups. In two reported case studies, these organizations have been shown to be called into life by the need to advance vertical coordination. Moreover, the case …
Agriculture land markets in transition - The inherited challenge of the post-communist land reform in Albania
Feminisation in Agriculture in a Transition Economy: Women's Role in Family Farms
Research on gender equality for several decades has observed gender roles as related to decisions, asset availability, and bargaining power. Literature examining the influence of intra-family bargaining power and rights on farm structures is scarce. This article builds on the feminisation thesis for exploring how feminisation in agriculture has been changing women's agency in family farms. It analyses the effect of farming decision-making in farm…
Fruit-related lifestyles as a segmentation tool for fruit consumers
Purpose This study develops a modified food-related lifestyle (FRL) instrument to analyse Kosovo consumers' fruit consumption behaviour and attitudes. Design/methodology/approach The research study is based on a structured questionnaire designed using a reduced version of the FRL instrument, including evaluation factors related to fruit consumption, which is useful to describe a fruit-related lifestyle. Data were collected through a face-to-face …
Electoral Politics of Disaster: How earthquake and pandemic relief was used to earn votes
Disasters can be good for incumbent governments. Amidst an emergency, budgets can be revised and reallocated in a hurry, framing the government as a ‘saviour,’ issuing contracts to the government’s business clientele and/or prioritising the electoral base more than the victims. Thus elected officials can curry favour with voters and increase their chances of retaining their seats. We examine this claim in the context of Albania, a middle-income c…
Unlanded Class: Albania's Gender Gaps in Land Ownership and Inheritance
This study investigates gender gaps in access to land ownership and land inheritance in Albanian rural areas by combining a large-scale survey and five in-depth focus groups discussions. The article considers three sets of variables: place-based characteristics; family characteristics; and individual characteristics. Results find that rural societies lack awareness around legal property rights, undermine the confidence of women in myriad ways, an…
Informal construction as political currency: A theory of ‘election-driven informality’
Active political engagement, political patronage and local labour markets – The example of Shkoder
Purpose This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of the effects of active political engagement in port-of-entry jobs and employment pathways for graduate students in a post-communist context which is characterized by clientelism. The data are derived from a structured survey of a small local labour market where political clientelism is pronounced due to the strong network ties. Controlling for both demand and supply factors, the authors…
Opportunistic privatization
The Evolution of Village (Self)Governance in the Context of Post‐Communist Rural Society
The role of the village headman and council of elders is very important in many societies. The focus of this article is to analyse the evolution and the role of the (informal) intermediary institutions and actors in the context of changing society’s patterns and political landscape transformations. This article focuses on Albania and Kosovo, where village self-governing mechanisms played a crucial role in avoiding (often deadly) social conflicts …
What explains collective action: The impact of social capital, incentive structures and economic benefits
This study focuses in testing the power of reciprocity and leadership as collective action incentive structures and cooperation economic benefits in explaining collective action initiation in the context of a post‐communist transition economy. The paper is based on a structured survey targeting Albanian export‐oriented farmers. Different from most previous studies, this paper uses both regression analysis and machine learning procedure which is b…
Impact of cigarette price and tobacco control policies on youth smoking experimentation in Albania
Price is a significant predictor of smoking experimentation among teenagers in Albania for both males and females. A combination of increasing taxes and strengthening the rule of law to control tobacco use in public spaces, in addition to public awareness campaigns targeting both youth and smoking parents, could help to significantly reduce the probability of smoking experimentation
Access to Food vs. Education - Feeding the Stomach is Important for Feeding the Mind
A school feeding program (SFP) influences school attendance and performance because better nutrition by default implies better physical and mental performance. SFP is an important motivation to attend school, especially in an area of extreme poverty and food insecurity. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of SFP on school attendance of students in the North-Eastern region of Nigeria, based on data from a cross-sectional compara…
The blatant phenomenon of 'election-driven legalization of informality
Informal construction has been rife in Albanian cities since the fall of communism in 1990. This study investigates the fluctuations in the housing legalization process in conjunction with national and local elections in Albania from 2008 to 2021. Government revenues from legalization fees are used as a proxy for the pace of the legalization process. The key finding is that the legalization of informal buildings intensifies prior to an election a…
Profiling consumer olive oil preferences: Shopping behaviours, health orientations and green values
Purpose Despite the cultural and nutritional importance of olive oil in Mediterranean diets, consumer preferences in emerging, nontraditional markets remain underexamined. Existing research has largely prioritized sensory qualities, certification schemes and price sensitivity, often neglecting the broader cultural and systemic drivers of food choice – such as sustainability concerns and health-oriented values. This study examines the influence of…
Electoral democracy, corruption, and tax evasion
A key challenge of developing and emerging economies is establishing effective tax systems, as fiscal capacity is essential for state building and economic growth. This study examines the relationship between electoral democracy, public sector corruption, and tax evasion through trade misinvoicing, using data from 53 developing and emerging economies to explore how political and institutional factors shape tax evasion. The analysis reveals a posi…
Why Elections Prompt More Corruption, Clientelism, and Forbearance? A Study of Attitudes in Albania, Kosovo, and North Macedonia
Corruption is often defined as the abuse of public functions for private gain, but research has expanded this view to include clientelism and forbearance, particularly in neo-patrimonial contexts. While forbearance has been widely studied, it remains largely unexplored in Southeastern Europe, where corruption is often oversimplified. This article innovatively combines forbearance, electoral corruption, and clientelism to analyse tax authorities' …
The Effect of Food and Financial Remittances on Household Food Security in Northern Nigeria
Remittances from migrants are an important livelihood strategy to mitigate the impact of adverse economic conditions, particularly in developing countries and rural areas. This study examines how migration and remittances affect household food security by analyzing data collected from 180 farmers in northern Nigeria in 2018. The descriptive results show that households use remittances mainly for health care and education. Remittances are most com…
When Services Matter: Rethinking Farmer Cooperation in an Export-Oriented Smallholder Setting
Why does agricultural cooperation remain fragile in post-socialist settings, despite its potential to reduce transaction costs and improve market access? Explanations usually stress institutional voids and the legacy of distrust. This paper advances a different view: farmers cooperate when the services offered are economically salient. Adapting Ostrom’s SES framework, we reinterpret “resource importance” for club goods, specifically cooperation s…
Economics (19 works) · Political science (17 works) · Business (12 works) · Politics (11 works) · Law (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Context (archaeology (6 works) · Geography (6 works) · Political economy (6 works) · Democracy (5 works)