AN EXAMINATION OF ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY OF RUSSIAN CROP OUTPUT IN THE REFORM PERIOD

This paper examines economic efficiency of Russian corporate farms for 1995-98. Economic efficiency declined over the period, due to declines in both technical and allocative inefficiency. According to the average technical efficiency scores, Russian agricultural production could improve from 17 to 43 percent according to DEA and SFA analysis, respectively. The efficiency scores show that Russian agriculture presently uses relatively too much fertilizer and fuel and too little land and labor. Russian agriculture inherited machinery-intensive technology from the Soviet era, which may be inappropriate given the relative abundance of labor in the post-reform environment. Investment constraints have prevented the replacement of old machinery-intensive technology with labor intensive technology