Agricultural Production Organization in Transition Economies and the Role of Human Capital: Evidence from Romania

This paper examines the production mode choices of rural households with an emphasis on the role of human capital in the agricultural transformation process. Farm restructuring in Central and Eastern Europe has resulted in a broad range of farm types, such as co-operatives, partnerships, individual farms and combinations of those. The fact that resources are allocated into different production organization modes is attributed to the utility maximization strategy of heterogeneous agents deriving income from uncertain sources in the face of absent or imperfect factor markets. Empirical results from a multinomial logit model estimated with data from two-year nation-wide survey of Romanian farm households support the hypothesis that the outcome of the transformation process depends primarily on both the human capital characteristics of and economic risks faced by the households.human capital, production organization, agricultural transition, Romania, Production Economics,

Individual Farming in the New EU Member States: The Case of Hungary

This paper is motivated by the fact that (part-time) individual farming is commonly observed among rural households in a number of transition economies but it is not clear prima facie if such resource allocation is optimal. A conceptual model of household labor allocation between individual farming and off-farm wage employment is developed. The model explicitly accounts for the role of household endowments in labor allocation as the analysis is conditioned on the status of factor markets. The hypotheses are empirically tested using 1998 data from a country-representative survey of rural households in Hungary, an advanced transition country, which only recently became EU member state. Results provide evidence that capital market imperfections still remain. Implications for the policies related to agricultural sector restructuring, employment and rural development are discussed. Classification-households, individual farming, labor allocation, diversification, transition economies, international integration

SHIFT TO INDIVIDUAL FARMING AND THE PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH OF TRANSITION AGRICULTURE

We analyze the impact of individualization on productivity growth within an augmented neo-classical growth model framework. Our estimation results using a panel data covering 15 transition countries over the period 1990-2001 and applying a GMM-IV estimator support the view that the shift to individual farming, as well as the overall economic reforms, have positively contributed to the productivity growth of transition agriculture.Productivity Analysis,

Is there a limit to agglomeration? Evidence from productivity of Dutch firms

Abstract We compute aggregate productivity of three categories of regions, classified by level of urbanization in the Netherlands, from firm-specific total factor productivity (TFP) measures. TFP measures are estimated by a semi-parametric algorithm, within 2-digit industries, covering agriculture, manufacturing, construction, trade and services, using AMADEUS data over the period 1997-2006. We analyse the productivity differentials across urbanization categories by decomposing them into industry productivity effect and industry composition effect. Our analysis indicates that there is non-linear, inverted U-shape effect of agglomeration on productivity growth but in levels agglomeration is associated with higher productivity.

Body Weight and Labour Market Outcomes in Post-Soviet Russia

This paper estimates the impacts of weight, measured by body mass index (BMI), on employment, wages, and missed work due to illness for Russian adults by gender, in order to better understand the mechanisms through which obesity affects employment, wages, and sick-leave days using recent panel data (1994-2005) from the nationally representative Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS). We employ econometric techniques to control for unobserved heterogeneity and potential biases due to endogeneity in BMI. The results show an inverted U-shaped effect of BMI on probability of employment for men and women. We did not find evidence of wage penalty for higher BMI. In fact, the wages for overweighed men are higher. However, having a BMI above 28.3 increases the number of days missing work days due to health problems for men. Overall, we find negative effects of obesity (BMI above 30) on employment only for women but not on wages. During the transition in Russia, the increasingly competitive pressure in the labour market combined with economic insecurity faced by the population has lead to a muted impact of an individual’s weight on labour market outcomes.Russia; BMI; Labour outcomes

Obesity and Labor Market Outcomes in Post-Soviet Russia

obesity, labor market outcomes, Russia, Consumer/Household Economics, Health Economics and Policy, Labor and Human Capital,

A vision about the farming sector’s future: What is in there for farmers in the time of the second machine age?

Recent technological advances both on the farm and in the lab have made farming more independent form nature than ever before. Arguably, the new and accessible technologies are helping us to better understand and ‘manage’ nature and thus for first time in history farming is becoming as any other industry, susceptible to specialisation and economies of scale. This in turn, besides increased productivity, leads to fundamental organisational change away from family control towards corporate forms with associated implications for employment and rural livelihoods – automation in farming replaces both ‘muscles and brains’

Is there a rural-urban divide? Location and Productivity of UK manufacturing

We compute the productivity gaps in manufacturing industries by urban, rural less sparse and rural sparse locations in the UK. This is done by using firm-specific total factor productivities, which are estimated by a semi-parametric algorithm within 4-digit manufacturing industries using FAME data over the period 1994-2001, by each location. We analyse the productivity differentials across locations by decomposing them into firm differences within the same industry and by differences that are explained by industry composition effects. Our analysis indicates that at the end of twentieth century a rural-urban divide in manufacturing productivity still remains but there is a tendency of convergence between rural and urban location categories. Even though industry productivity is different by location, industry composition effects are positively correlated with industry productivity by location suggesting that locations with high productivity are also characterised by industrial structures with higher productivity.Total factor productivity, structural estimation, rural-urban divides, UK manufacturing

Linking Productivity to Trade in the Structural Estimation of Production within UK Manufacturing Industries

We estimate productivity dynamics within 4-digit manufacturing industries, using FAME data on UK Companies, from 1994 to 2003. We extend the algorithm in Olley and Pakes (1996) to allow for a selection bias driven by the Melitz (2003) effect (high productivity types selecting to exporting) to get more consistent and unbiased estimates of the parameters of the production function. We demonstrate a link between trade orientation and productivity within industries that is driven by selection, not by learning. Hence aggregate productivity is driven by market share reallocations amongst companies rather than from improvements in company level productivity.Simultaneity, Selection (Exit and Trade) Biases, Productivity Dynamics, UK Manufacturing Companies, within 4-digit industries.

Does Does Individualisation Help Productivity of Transition Agriculture

There are large differences across transition countries with respect to agricultural-sector performance and corresponding scope of farm restructuring and shift to individual farming. In this paper we analyze the impact of individualization on productivity growth within an augmented neo-classical growth model framework. This approach allows us to circumvent criticisms on the grounds of lack of theoretical and objective criteria for inclusion of explanatory variables. Furthermore, in the empirical analysis using a panel data covering 15 transition countries over the period 1990-2001 and applying a GMM-IV estimator we are able to control for the impact of various factors and the potential endogeneity of variables. Our estimation results are robust and support the view that the shift to individual farming, as well as the overall economic reforms, have positively contributed to the productivity growth in agriculture during the first decade of transition. Classification-agriculture, individual farming, productivity, economic transition, international integration