We use a mixture regression model to identify segmentation in the Israeli labor market, and propose a new method for assigning workers to simulated segments. We identified a lowwage segment and a high-wage segment, as well as a third segment with a large wage variability that we interpret as...

People often need to choose between alternatives with known probabilities (risk) and alternatives with unknown probabilities (ambiguity). Such decisions are characterized by attitudes towards ambiguity, which are distinct from risk attitudes. Studies of ambiguity attitudes have thus far focused...

The five countries of Central Asia – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan – became independent states in 1991-1992 with the dissolution of the Soviet Union (see Map 1). Immediately after assuming independence, the Central Asian countries embarked, together with...

This article reviews the evidence on agricultural service cooperatives in two countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)—Ukraine and Kazakhstan—and considers the reasons for their lack of development compared to the countries of North America and Western Europe. Only one farm...

Most cooperatives in Kyrgyzstan are production cooperatives – successors of former collective farms. • There are hardly any “pure” service cooperatives, although production cooperatives partially fulfill the function of service cooperatives by providing farm services also to...

Turkmenistan, like all Central Asian countries, is critically dependent on water because of its arid desert climate. The Amudarya, flowing from the Pamir and Tien-Shan Mountains to the tragically dying Aral Sea, is the main source of water for all agricultural and non-agricultural uses in...

The duality of farm structure in Moldova is manifested by the existence of a relatively small number of large corporate farms at one extreme and a very large number of small and very small family farms at the other. “Medium-sized” family farms, the backbone of any market agriculture,...

We consider the consequences of a shared brand name such as geographical names used to identify high quality products, for the incentives of otherwise autonomous firms to invest in quality. We contend that such collective brand labels improve communication between sellers and consumers, when the...

In this paper the structure of the rural economy in Armenia is explored from a household perspective. The paper draws on the livelihoods framework, recognizing the different capitals and activities that support rural households' livelihood strategies. Ownership of capitals and access to...

Land reform was launched in the Republic of Georgia in 1992, about a year after the country gained its independence from the Soviet Union. While an impressive land individualization process has been in effect since then, the pace and the performance of this process are far from satisfactory....