Understanding efficiency of agrarian organisation

Bachev, Hrabrin (2009): Understanding efficiency of agrarian organisation.

Abstract

In this paper we incorporate achievements of interdisciplinary New Institutional and Transaction Costs Economics (combining Economics, Organization, Law, Sociology, Behavioral and Political Sciences) into analysis of agrarian organizations and suggest a framework for evaluating efficiency of different governing structures in agriculture. This new approach includes: study of farm and other agrarian organizations as a governing rather than production structure; assessment of comparative efficiency of alternative (market, contract, internal, hybrid) modes of governance; analysis of level of transaction costs and their institutional, behavioral (agents preferences, bounded rationality, tendency for opportunism), dimensional (frequency, uncertainty, assets specificity, and appropriability of transactions), and technological factors; determination of effective horizontal and vertical boundaries of farms, and other agrarian organizations; the specification of the economic role of the government and the effective forms of public interventions in agrarian sector. The paper provides new effective tools for improvement of agrarian public policies, farming and business strategies, and academic analysis.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: agrarian governance, efficiency of farms and agrarian organizations, agrarian policies, transaction costs, new institutional and transaction costs economics
• Subjects: D - Microeconomics > D2 - Production and Organizations > D21 - Firm Behavior: Theory; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development > O13 - Agriculture ; Natural Resources ; Energy ; Environment ; Other Primary Products; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q1 - Agriculture > Q12 - Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q1 - Agriculture > Q18 - Agricultural Policy ; Food Policy; D - Microeconomics > D2 - Production and Organizations > D23 - Organizational Behavior ; Transaction Costs ; Property Rights; L - Industrial Organization > L1 - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance > L14 - Transactional Relationships ; Contracts and Reputation ; Networks; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development > O17 - Formal and Informal Sectors ; Shadow Economy ; Institutional Arrangements; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q1 - Agriculture > Q13 - Agricultural Markets and Marketing ; Cooperatives ; Agribusiness; L - Industrial Organization > L2 - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior > L22 - Firm Organization and Market Structure

References

[1] Bachev H. Efficiency of Agrarian Organizations, Farm Management and Rural Planning No 5, Fukuoka: Kyushu University Press, 2004.

[2] Csáki C. and Zvi Lerman –editors. Structural change in the farming sectors in Central and Eastern Europe, World Bank Technical Paper Volume 465, Washington DC., 2000.

[3] Gortona M. and S. Davidova. Farm productivity and efficiency in the CEE applicant countries: a synthesis of results, Elsevier B.V. 2003.

[4] Williamson O. The Mechanisms of Governance, Oxford University Press, New York, 1996.

[5] Bachev H. Mechanisms of Governance of Sustainable Development, Journal of Applied Economic Science, Volume IV, Issue2(8), 2009.

[6] Coase, R.. The Problem of Social Costs, Journal of Law and Economics 3, 1960.

[7] Bachev H. Governing of Bulgarian Farms – Modes, Efficiency, Impact of EU Accession, in “Agriculture in the Face of Changing Markets, Institutions and Policies: Challenges and Strategies”editors J.Curtiss, A.Balmann, K.Dautzenberg and K.Happe, Studies on the Agriculural and Food Sector in Central and Eastern Europe, Vol.33, IAMO, Halle (Saale), 2006.

[8] Eggertsson, T. Economic Behavior and Institutions, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

[9] Bachev H. and M.Tsuji. Governing of Agrarian Transactions. Management and Rural Planning II, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 2001.

[10] Sporleder T. Managerial Economics of Vertically Coordinated Agricultural Firms, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Vo l 74, No 5, 1992.

[11] Dahlman C. The problem of Externality, Journal of Law and Economics, 22, 1979.

[12] Bachev H. and M.Labonne. About Organization of Agrarian Innovations, INRA, Montpellier, 2000.

[13] Furuboth E., and Richter R. Institutions and Economic Theory: The Contribution of the New Institutional Economics, The University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 1998.

[14] Demsetz H. Information and Efficiency: Another Viewpoint, Journal of Law and Economics, 12, 1969.

[15] Olson, M. The Logic of Collective Actions: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1969.