Public policies and private initiatives in transition: evidence from the Polish dairy sector

The drivers of institutional change in Central and Eastern Europe have changed considerably since 1989. Taking these changes into account, we identify three - partly overlapping - transition stages: public policy changes dominated the start of transition, private initiatives became crucial in a second stage and, more recently, policy changes related to the EU accession process became the dominant drivers. We use unique primary interview data on the supply chain and farm household data to study the impact of these institutional changes on structural adjustments in the Polish dairy sector. We find distinct patterns in farm restructuring and link these results to specific institutional changes in the different transition stages.