Corporate farm performance in Russia, 1991-1995: An efficiency analysis

In this paper, we consider how Russian corporate farm efficiency has changed in the period from 1991 to 1995 and why, using oblast level data. Both time series and cross-section efficiency results point to the overwhelming importance of initial conditions in predicting farm efficiency performance. Efficiency scores can be explained by several economic and institutional factors, including farm size, softness of the budget constraint, deterioration in farm terms of trade and oblast-level specialization of production. The overall results of the study are more consistent with a corporate farm sector that follows a policy of oblast self-sufficiency than with one engaged in actual restructuring. (C) 1999 Academic Press.