This article provides a deeper theoretical understanding of the linkages between land fragmentation and off-farm labor supply in China, and investigates this relationship empirically in a more direct way than does the existing literature. Drawing upon a rural household panel data set collected...

Initially taken as a template for farm restructuring after the demise of collective agriculture, the ‘Western family farm model’ has taken root in the former Soviet countries only belatedly and incompletely. We examine dairy structures in Russia and Kazakhstan and analyse the drivers of...

This article explores the current practice of motivating agricultural workers in post-socialist settings. In addition, it attempts to evaluate the different wage systems observed in reality and better understand under which conditions they are reformed. It does so by contrasting the experience...

What would a ‘good’ industrial policy in the realm of cotton production look like? This article seeks to address this question through a focus on reforms to the cotton sector in Kazakhstan. In contrast with neighbouring Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, administrators in Kazakhstan had widely...

Urbanisation and the ageing of the rural population contribute to shortages of skilled workers in agricultural sectors worldwide. Migration may potentially alleviate these shortages. This study explores individual decision-making by skilled Russian rural youth with respect to migration, paying...

This study analyses the effect of Kazakhstan’s 2003–2005 agricultural land reform on land rental and credit market participation. Although the reform declared an intention to facilitate efficient land allocation, we observe a major land concentration. We analyze whether new land relations...

Challenging the initial expectation that all post-Soviet economies will evolve from collective toward fully individualized farming, I argue that they separated into two different reform paths. In the European successor countries and Kazakhstan, corporate and family farms coexist, labor exited...

Against the global trend towards sedentary, specialised and feed-intensive cattle farming, we explore current patterns of production in Kazakhstan's traditionally nomadic livestock sector. Experts see considerable potential for output expansion, and the government hopes to promote the sector as...

We theoretically and empirically investigate the investments of water users in a stylized local irrigation system. We model irrigation self-management as an interdependent interaction of users in an evolutionary game and study the resilience of the irrigation system. The theoretical model...