POST-COMMUNIST AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION AND THE ROLE OF HUMAN CAPITAL: EVIDENCE FROM ROMANIA

Farm restructuring in post-communist transition countries has resulted in a broad range of farm types, such as cooperatives, companies, partnerships and sole proprietorships. This study examines which factors affect production organization choices of rural households with an emphasis on the role of human capital in the agricultural transition process. We use a multinomial logit model and data from a nation-wide survey of Romanian farms, organized in 1996. The results of the empirical tests support the main hypothesis that the transformation process outcome depends primarily on human capital and farm physical capital endowments of the household, translated into household income by the household entrepreneurial input. Entrepreneurial ability is influenced by a broad range of factors such as age, education, experience, and regional social and economic conditions.