Institutional Impact and Agricultural Change in Russia

Abstract

Set within the context of New Institutionalism, this article analyzes the impact of institutional change on Russian agriculture. Institutions are important because they create opportunity and incentives. The market-based institutional framework introduced in the 1990s acted as an independent variable that facilitated growth in entrepreneurial income and an increase in rural stratification. Further, institutions contributed to land expansion by a stratum of upper income households. As a dependent variable, indigenous factors influence the economic outcomes that flow from new institutions with a twofold effect: regional variance is significant for entrepreneurial income and land expansion; and some households experienced much higher entrepreneurial income and land expansion.