More than ten years after the departure of the Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) towards market economy and democracy now it seems to be possible as well as necessary to analyse the present settings, the developments so far, and relevant problems faced during the transition. The main...

On the verge of EU accession, Polandâs agricultural sector is characterised by a number of distinct structural weaknesses, which are a major reason for the unsatisfactory income situation of rural households. Among these weaknesses are that farm productivity is substantially below EU standards,...

More than a decade ago, path dependence turned out to become a promising research program for agricultural economics. This article reviews important trends in path dependence research and highlights its role in the economics of technology, institutional economics, agricultural economics, and...

The 2002 New Zealand Transport Strategy states that in the long run, economic development and transport activity need not be directly related. This implies that a degree of „decoupling‟ is required – that economic development needs to occur without similar growth in transport. Before...

The greenhouse sector has reinvented itself as a technologically advanced and relatively environmentally friendly industry over the past 15 years. However it remains a high energy user. Two recent surveys have highlighted the potential impact on greenhouse grower costs of the proposed emissions...

The research goodbye to projects grew out of the increasing interest in sustainable livelihoods approaches (SLA) and growing disillusion with projects as mechanisms for addressing the development needs of the poor. Its aim was to investigate the implication of the adoption of SLA on the...

The core cognitive foundation of cooperative values, norms and beliefs can need updating and refurbishing just like the hard economic assets of plant and equipment that maintain their visible, outward structure. Import competition, agricultural industrialization, and market failure have led...

As farms increase in size, operators often face the difficult decision of remaining loyal to local merchants or obtaining volume discounts from more distant input suppliers. When farmers bypass local merchants and buy inputs in volume from a wholesaler, they often realize a price discount but...

Experiences of Water Consumers Cooperatives accumulated in Armenia during the past six years have been mixed. Some cooperatives have provided evidence of being capable of organizing themselves and responding to the needs of their members more effectively than any central governmental...