Agricultural Output and Productivity in the Former Soviet Republics

This article is an examination, in two parts, of productivity and changes in agriculture in the 15 new independent states that, until 1991, constituted the republics of the Soviet Union. The first part presents a production function analysis for the Soviet period before 1990. The second part deals with the post-Soviet period of transition, 1990-1998, covering both the collapse associated with the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the recovery that began to emerge. The study is preliminary in at least two ways. First, the transition is an ongoing process, and it is safe to expect that accumulating information and experience will change, in the coming years, the lessons of its analysis. Second, information on the agriculture of the former Soviet economies is often more problematic than it is on the agricultural sectors of many other countries, and the available data may be expected to improve as research continues.