Our purpose here is to challenge the big-bang approach to economic history in which some alleged institutional imposition - a deus machine - is claimed to launch a series of new economic behaviors. This so-called prime mover is then carried forward by the inexorable forces of path dependency to...

This paper discusses whether compensation payments in a transition economy can contribute to a reduction of the conflict between winners and losers of the transformation. The political relevancy of this issue is obvious. The failure of both parties to realize their political objectives due to a...

This discussion paper considers insurance as a possible instrument of farm income stabilization and compares several crop insurance products with respect to their applicability in a transition economy using the case of Kazakhstan. The analysis is based on a qualitative evaluation as well a...

Against the rising global concern of how to achieve sustainable output expansion in food, we document the main outcomes of post-Soviet agricultural recovery and restructuring in the Kazakhstan grain region. Together with an expansion of cropland area and increasing capital input, real...

This Discussion Paper explores interactions between structural impediments to labour adjustment, specific labour adjustment patterns and the impacts of differing economical and political frames. Based on the agent-based simulation framework AgriPoliS adjusted to the agricultural structure of the...

Social capital has been recently held up as a conceptual framework to build a bridge between the diverse disciplines involved in rural development. However, despite its potential and the impressively rapid take-up of the concept by the community of development professionals, it remains an...

Georgien ist eines der Kaukasusländer mit hohem landwirtschaftlichem Potenzial, das nicht voll ausgeschöpft wird, da sich die Bedingungen für die Landwirtschaft nach dem Zerfall der Sowjetunion stark verschlechterten. Aufgrund des Mangels an Zugang zu Betriebsmitteln, Krediten und...

Предпринимательская деятельность основана на максимизации прибыли для того, чтобы увеличить размер собственного капитала, расширить производство и на...

Economic reform in China helped transform the structure and volume of agricultural production and resulted in significant changes in efficiency and productivity. This paper measures agricultural technical efficiency (TE) and total factor productivity (TFP) in China by allowing producers...

Земельная реформа началась в Украине 14 лет назад и является одним из наиболее важ- ных факторов влияющих на процесс трансформации бывших государственных...