Crop Yield Convergence: How Russia's Yield Performance Has Compared to Global Yield Leaders

This paper examines whether there has been cross-country convergence among yields for selected crops important to Russia and the New Independent States. The only crop that showed yield convergence globally was wheat, although several crops in sub-samples displayed convergence. In the reform era, Russian yields for several crops declined, leading to gaps between Russia and the global yield leaders that are wider now than in the study's initial starting period (1962). These findings are consistent with recent studies showing declining efficiency in the reform era. Input price liberalization and institutional constraints exerted downward pressure on yields, offsetting gains achieved by opening up to the global market.