No abstract

Studies show that the co-operatives that have been established by governmental officials in Russia have not been successful. This study seeks to explore whether the government decision makers are badly informed about the conditions for running co-operative enterprises. The study is based on surveys within Kurgan region with agricultural producers who are not co-operative members, members of the co-operatives at the formation stage, the same members at a later point in time and a sample of government officials. The findings indicate that the government officials have poor knowledge about the socio-psychological conditions among agricultural producers.

No abstract

Many Soviet kolkhozy and sovkhozy were transformed into agricultural production co-operatives, because the farm workers would have had large transaction costs in any other type of organisation. These co-operatives still hold a strong market position. This study explores the hypothesis that this market strength could be due to low governance costs, obtained through strong manager power. As managers want the co-operative to survive, they make limited investments in the co-operative and pay low wages. The members do, however, not consider this to be problematic. They appreciate the community within the village, their private plots of land and the co-operative's services. Hence the existence of the co-operatives is not threatened.

In most post-socialist economies, private farming has re-emerged after regime change, although even today this sector most often accounts for only a minor proportion of national production. Russian private farmers are reported to dislike formal cooperatives, so this study investigated whether their informal collaborative arrangements may affect their business results. A survey involving personal interviews with 158 randomly chosen private farmers in the Kurgan Region examined whether collaborating farmers are economically more successful and consider their financial situation to be better than that of neighbouring farmers. Ordinary least square and ordered probit regression analysis indicated that farmers with stronger networks are more successful in terms of farm wealth, and also relative to the financial situation of their immediate neighbours. This suggests that success among private farmers in a post-socialist setting is related to their networks.