Over fifteen years have elapsed since the transition from the centrally planned economic system started in the early 1990âs. During this time agricultural and rural areas of Central and Eastern Europe have undergone profound structural changes with wide variations in the degree of...

This paper investigates the effects of network based individual social capital on the access of rural households to services. In the context of development economics, an innovative data collection approach is used to determine network based social capital. The approach originates from the field...

This Discussion Paper documents a survey conducted in rural China in 2005. A multi-topic survey funded by the Sino-German international Training Program "Sustainable Resource Use in North China", the project covers farm management, land property rights and rural credit access on the North China...

Semi-subsistence farm households (SFHs) have persevered in Central and Southeastern Europe. An outlook on future perspectives of SFHs asks for reliable information on the phenomenon of SFHs and the impact of policy measures on their development options: (1) intensifying farming, (2) diversifying...

The first step of reforms directed towards the formation of a market structure in Armenia was the privatisation of land, which started in February 1991 with the adoption of the Land Code and the Law on Peasant and Peasant Collective Household, and finished in April 1993 (Spoor, 2005). As a...

Based on the results of a probit model estimated from a survey of 1625 farmers from seven major dairying regions in New Zealand, farmers’ attitudes (perception about the overall benefits) appear to be are a major governing factor of waterway fencing in all regions. While fencing in Northland...

In this paper we examine the multiple environmental effects of policies promoting biofuel production from agricultural crops. We develop theoretical and empirical frameworks and provide an integrated economic and ecological modelling approach: an economic model of farmers’ decision making is...

A dynamic and non-linear bioeconomic model, incorporating both economic and biophysical aspects was developed for a micro-watershed to assess the impact of key watershed management technological interventions (like HYVs and soil and water conservation structures) on social well being of rural...

In Germany agricultural land use is very heterogeneous with respect to management orientation and productivity even at local level. Also the rate of structural change shows a wide variation. While for a limited number of factors (e.g. farm size) a stable relation to structural change could be...