In the course of economic development there is a general downward trend of agricultural employment, although structural change in agriculture is often delayed. In the EU-15, agricultural employment decreased by -2.3% p.a. (measured in regular persons) and -3.0% p.a. (measured in annual working...

Since the beginning of transition, rural economies in Central and Eastern Europe have undergone a strong restructuring with increasing urban-rural disparities. The analysis of the rural situation on the basis of GDP p.c., investments, unemployment and sectoral structures leads to the question on...

In the course of economic development there is a general downward trend of agricultural employment. In the EU-15, agricultural employment decreased by 2.3% p.a. (measured in regular persons) and 3.0% p.a. (measured in annual working units) between 1995 and 2000. In some of the new EU Member...

Our aim is to investigate whether the direct payments and rural development measures of theEU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) do make jobs in agriculture safer. We work with adynamic labour demand equation that is augmented by the full set of policy instruments of theCAP. It is estimated on...

Based on a case study of two Moldovan regions, the paper challenges the favourable assessment of recently established peasant farms in a World Bank study by LERMAN et al. (1998). The main arguments in favour of a more critical view of the results of land privatisation and farm restructuring are...

Our micro-econometric analysis of agricultural credit market outcomes in Poland sheds new light on the relationship between contractual arrangements and interest rates. An innovative theoretical framework based on a hedonic market model is developed. We interpret the factors that influence...

In this paper an institutional policy approach is outlined that interprets rural development as a problem of public goods provision. It is argued that rural development policy should focus on the establishment of institutional arrangements that provide rural public goods effectively. Incentive...